Precise Maritime Navigation with a Locata-Augmented Multi-Sensor System

This paper investigates use of Locata—a ground signal-based navigation system—to augment a standard GNSS/INS integrated system for use in the marine environment. A loosely-coupled decentralized integration architecture based on a Kalman filter was implemented. The multi-sensor experiment was conducted on Sydney Harbour, Australia. The GNSS, INS and Locata measurements were collected and post-processed to evaluate the overall positioning performance of the integrated system. The test results indicate that the addition of the Locata measurements significantly improves the overall system performance. Moreover, accurate seamless navigation is achievable even when GNSS signals are unavailable.