Implementation and Performance Analysis of RTK-GNSS in Wearable Devices for Athletes in Harsh Environments

This study presents the performance analysis of RTK-GNSS (real-time kinematic global navigation satellite system) mounted on wearable devices for athletes in harsh environments. GNSS signal can deteriorate by obstacles, i.e. stadium roofs, due to the high GDOP (geometric dilution of precision). RTK-GNSS is used to overcome harsh environment problems in this study. Hardware experiments are performed to analyse the performance of RTK-GNSS in sports wearable devices in harsh environments. The full pitch tracking test results of a wearable device equipped with RTK-GNSS demonstrate the best performance among three different wearable devices in a harsh environment; the maximum positioning error of 1.56 $m$ is approximately 3–30 times smaller than that of wearable devices equipped with stand-alone GNSS. The distance test results of the wearable device equipped with RTK-GNSS validate the most accurate performance, 98.97$\%$, compared to the true value in harsh environment.