Navigation of a GPS Based Robot Vehicle

The Global Positioning System is a 24-satellite constellation that can tell the user where he is in the three dimensional world space. GPS navigation and position determination is based on measuring the distance from the user position to the precise locations of the GPS satellites as they orbit. By measuring the distance to four GPS satellites, it is possible to establish three coordinates of a user position (latitude, longitude and altitude) as well as the GPS time.
Since the absence of the purposeful scrambling of the GPS signal, precise measuring can be done with GPS technology in the commercial field. This fact can give new possibilities in outdoor robot vehicle navigation. Several measurements were made in order to locate best field of usage for this technology. The authors made these surveys to pinpoint the precision of the GPS devices. Precision was examined both in dynamic and static context. Static analysis was conducted to define the precision during the measurement of one single point. These measurements were taken on several occasions in 24 hour cycles. The results of these surveys along with researches in this field confirmed that in certain situations GPS can be used for navigating robot vehicles.
A prototype device was constructed which is able to test practical approaches of GPS-based robot navigation. This prototype can be connected to several GPS devices. The outputs of the electronic panel can direct several vehicles (i.e. ships). The resulting robot vehicle can be used to further refine the navigating system.