This paper presents the most thorough study to date of vehicular carrier-phase differential GNSS (CDGNSS) positioning performance in a deep urban setting unaided by complementary sensors. Using data captured during approximately 2 hours of driving in and around the dense urban center of Austin, TX, a CDGNSS system is demonstrated to achieve 17-cm-accurate 3D urban positioning (95% probability) with solution availability greater than 87%. The results are achieved without any aiding by inertial, electro-optical, or odometry sensors. Development and evaluation of the unaided GNSS-based precise positioning system is a key milestone toward the overall goal of combining precise GNSS, vision, radar, and inertial sensing for all-weather high- integrity high-absolute-accuracy positioning for automated and connected vehicles. The system described and evaluated herein is composed of a densely-spaced reference network, a software-defined GNSS receiver, and a real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning engine. A performance sensitivity analysis reveals that navigation data wipeoff for fully-modulated GNSS signals and a dense reference network are key to high-performance urban RTK positioning. A comparison with existing unaided systems for urban GNSS processing indicates that the proposed system has significantly greater availability or accuracy.

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Cite and download the paper:
Todd E. Humphreys, Matthew J. Murrian, and Lakshay Narula "Deep-Urban Unaided Precise Global Navigation Satellite System Vehicle Positioning," in IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, doi: 10.1109/MITS.2020.2994121.

April 2021: The prevalence of unmanned aerial vehicles has caused a plethora of safety and regulatory problems in recent years, which is why several companies are developing counter-UAV technologies. Some of these use kinetic methods to disable offending drones, but others use microwave radiation to either jam or disable the drones' onboard electronics. 

"A ray gun that can fry a drone’s electronics at hundreds of meters sounds like something Tony Stark would invent" says Dr. Humphreys. 

Amazing as it sounds, such devices are being developed today. But companies seeking to test their devices are being denied by the FCC and referred to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which has jurisdiction over military spectrum experiments. Read the IEEE Spectrum article here.