SBIR Phase I: Low Earth Orbit Navigation System (LEONS) - The Ground Network

SBIR 第一阶段：近地轨道导航系统 (LEONS) - 地面网络

• 批准号: 2054113
• 负责人: Joshua Morales
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: STARNAV LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-12-01 至 2022-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2054113&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Low; Earth; Orbit

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to make critical United States infrastructure less dependent on the Global Positioning System (GPS). The transportation industry, power grid, banking operations, and communication systems are all interconnected and heavily rely on GPS for accurate and reliable positioning or time synchronization. This project addresses this single point of failure by providing accurate positioning and timing, completely independent of GPS. Additionally, the emerging autonomous vehicle market requires a more reliable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system than GPS can provide alone for the market to reach full potential. Addressing the known pain points of GPS signal jamming and spoofing will improve vehicle safety and consumer confidence in autonomous applications ranging from self-driving cars, and package delivery drones, to autonomous search and rescue. This impact will increase sales for autonomous vehicle manufactures and supporting technology companies, such as sensor, battery, and computer chip manufacturers. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project studies the feasibility of using a network of ground stations to receive low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite signals that were never designed for PNT and convert them into PNT-usable signals. Thousands of LEO satellites are being launched into space for internet and communication. However, unlike the GPS signal structure designed for extraction of PNT measurements, the signal structure transmitted from communication and internet LEO satellites was never intended for PNT. GPS satellites transmit accurate satellite ephemeris, atmospheric, and clock information to the GPS receiver, whereas this information is typically unavailable for LEO satellites. This project proposes to deploy a ground network to determine this information from LEO satellite signals and make this information available for PNT purposes. To this end, this project involves the following research thrusts: 1) find the optimal geometric distribution of the ground stations to minimize LEO satellite ephemeris, clock, and atmospheric errors, 2) develop special signal processing and estimation theory techniques to extract accurate PNT measurements from existing and future LEO satellite signals for free (without a subscription to their network), and 3) derive theoretical limits on PNT estimation errors when using the ground network’s produced information.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是减少美国关键基础设施对全球定位系统 (GPS) 的依赖，包括交通运输业、电网、银行业务和通信系统。所有这些都相互关联，并且严重依赖 GPS 来实现准确可靠的定位或时间同步。该项目通过提供完全独立于 GPS 的精确定位和授时来解决这一单点故障。此外，新兴的自动驾驶汽车市场需要更可靠的定位、导航。 ，以及时间安排(PNT) 系统比 GPS 能够单独为市场发挥全部潜力，解决 GPS 信号干扰和欺骗的已知痛点将提高车辆安全性和消费者对自动驾驶汽车、包裹递送无人机等自主应用的信心。这种影响将增加自动驾驶汽车制造商和支持技术公司（例如传感器、电池和计算机芯片制造商）的销售额。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目研究了使用网络的可行性。接收近地轨道信号的地面站从未为 PNT 设计的 (LEO) 卫星信号并将其转换为 PNT 可用的信号，正在将数千颗 LEO 卫星发射到太空以用于互联网和通信。然而，与为提取 PNT 测量而设计的 GPS 信号结构不同。从通信和互联网 LEO 卫星传输的结构从未用于 GPS 卫星向 GPS 接收器传输准确的卫星星历、大气和时钟信息，而 LEO 卫星通常无法获取这些信息。从 LEO 卫星信号中确定此信息，并将此信息用于 PNT 目的。为此，该项目涉及以下研究重点：1）找到地面站的最佳几何分布，以最大限度地减少 LEO 卫星星历、时钟和大气误差。 ，2) 开发特殊的信号处理和估计理论技术，以免费从现有和未来的 LEO 卫星信号中提取准确的 PNT 测量值（无需订阅其网络），以及 3) 得出使用地面网络产生的 PNT 估计误差的理论限制信息.这个授予 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估反映使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得支持。