Rotation method for direction finding via GPS carrier phases

A baseline rotation method is proposed for determining the direction of the baseline vector via Global Positioning System (GPS) carrier phase measurements. The space difference technique is adopted to resolve GPS carrier phase cycle ambiguities. Possible applications include the determination of the aiming directions of artillery rockets and the line of sights of tracking radars, etc. For such armaments, the direction findings are important and the rotating mechanisms are well equipped already. A general baseline vector which can be rotated on a two-degree-of-freedom platform is considered first. The relationship among the baseline vector and the two rotation axes is not known. A sequence of rotations is used to change the configuration of the system to find the direction of the baseline. Under different circumstances such as the cases that some orthogonal conditions among the unknown vectors are given, simplified algorithms are devised. To verify our method, software simulation and hardware experiments have been conducted. The simulation outcomes are used to determine the experimental parameters, such as the length of the baseline, the rotation angles etc. The results of repeated hardware experiments show that the sample standard deviation for the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of the 1.35 m baseline vector are 0.91 deg and 1.23 deg, respectively. The GPS receivers employed are Motorola ONCOREs. The errors of the estimated direction angles induced by the inaccuracy of rotation angles, which are unavoidable due to the imperfectness of the mechanical structure, are analyzed as well. Numerical examples for the error analysis are included.