Design and Development of a GPS Intermediate Frequency and IMU Data Acquisition System for Advanced Integrated Architectures

Abstract

Advanced levels of GPS and INS integration, including Deeply Integrated and Ultra- Tightly Coupled, have been reported to provide significant gains in anti-jamming capa- bility and reduced susceptibility to loss of GPS signal lock. This thesis provides the design and development of a GPS intermediate frequency and IMU data acquisition system that can be used for the implementation of these advanced GPS and INS inte- grated algorithms. Details of the design of the system are covered, including GPS chip set selection, signal conditioning, and data collection. The system is capable of syn- chronizing IMU measurement collection to the collection of digitized GPS intermediate frequency in real-time using a derivative of the GPS IF sampling clock to sample the IMU measurements. This synchronization is necessary for proper integrated algorithm implementation. The system was installed on a moving platform and the results of the experiment are shown using a GPS software receiver for the validation of the digitized GPS IF and the plotting of the IMU measurements.