On the Kalman filtering formulation for RTK joint positioning and attitude quaternion determination

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is the cornerstone for positioning and timing applications across land, sea and air. GNSS carrier phase observations can be used to determine the orientation of a vehicle when this is equipped with a setup of multiple GNSS antennas. Attitude determination seeks to find the rotation between two coordinate frames. In this work, we propose a formulation for the joint estimation of the positioning and attitude using quaternion rotations. The estimation is expressed in the recursive Bayesian estimation framework as an Extended Kalman Filter, whose equations and Jacobians matrices are derived. We evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology with actual data collected from a dynamic scenario under the influence of severe multipath effects.