Accuracy Trend Analysis of Low-cost GNSS Chips: The Case of Multi-constellation GNSS PPP

Abstract

Accuracy Trend Analysis of Low-cost GNSS Chips: The Case of Multiconstellation GNSS PPP John Aggrey, Sunil Bisnath, Nacer Naciri, Ganga Shinghal and Sihan Yang, Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Canada Over the past decade, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) has undergone an evolution and ultimately is having an impact on user solution performance. The availability of more GNSSs with modernized signals has revolutionized both the receiver manufacturing and technology industries as well as positioning algorithms. This progression opens the door to a vast number of potential applications including but not limited to location-based services, autonomous navigation, Internet-of-Things (IoT), etc. The user interest in such applications stems out of the point that it would not require geodetic-grade receivers for better position solutions. It would be equally possible to use low-cost receivers to obtain relatively equivalent results, as compared to their geodetic grade counterparts. Though it possible to obtain centimetre level of accuracy using high end geodetic grade receivers, the cost of them poses a challenge. The recent market releases of state-of-the-art low-cost receivers capable of tracking multiGNSS signals offers a glimpse into the potential level of improvement in the user solution accuracy. This paper investigates various low-cost, multi-GNSS receiver chipsets, including: Piksi Multi Module, Unicorecomm Nebulas II, Septentrio Mosaic, and Ublox F9 sensors. It is important to note that the idea of investigating these receiver modules is not to either advocate for or promote these brands. This paper aims to address how the accuracy of low-cost receivers have improved over the years from the hardware perspective, as well as show how that reflects in the position domain.