Development of Low-Cost Differential Global Positioning System for Remotely Piloted Vehicles

Thedevelopmentandtheapplication ofacost-effectivedifferentialglobalpositioningsystem forremotelypiloted vehiclesarepresented.Withtheaidofan aerial-photography system,i.e.,digitalcamera andcharge-coupleddevice camera,thelow-costglobalpositioning systemreceivers (GarminSvyIIandXL-25 )canperformvaluableandhighaccuracy positioning and navigation measurements, which are competitive with the precise (but more expensive ) Ashtech Z-12 receiver.Flight-testresultsreveal thatthelow-costpayload (XL-25 system )developed can reach 10 m in spatial accuracy of the static e ight trajectory and 0.17 m/s and 1 deg in accuracy for e ight velocity and heading angle. The heading angle and e ight-path angle can also achieve 1 ‐3 deg rms accuracy level. Relative deviations of the rms accuracy values between XL-25 and Z-12, such as the kinematic, three-dimensional position and the e ight velocity, are found to be below 2.6 m and 0.5 m/s, respectively.