Micro-electro-mechanical-sensor inertial navigation system-assisted global navigation satellite system receiver acquisition scheme and performance evaluation

When an aircraft moves under a low carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) or at a high speed, increasing the sensitivity of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver is a goal quite hard to achieve. A novel acquisition scheme assisted with micro-electro-mechanical-sensor (MEMS) inertial navigation system (INS) is presented to estimate the Doppler caused by user dynamics relative to each satellite ahead of time. Based on tightly coupled GNSS/INS estimation algorithm, MEMS INS Doppler error that can be achieved is first described. Then, by analyzing the mean acquisition time and signal detection probability, the MEMS INS-assisted acquisition capabilities in cold, warm and hot starts are quantitatively determined and compared with the standard GNSS acquisition capability. The simulations and comparisons have shown that: the acquisition time in cold start can be shortened by at least 23 s, the time in warm start can be shortened to 1 s and the acquisition capability is improved 95%, and the reacquisition time in hot start can be shortened by around 0.090 s and the capability can be enhanced 40%. The results demonstrate the validity of the novel method.