GPS Tracking Down to the Centimeter

GPS Tracking with a new level of accuracy

GPS Tracking can be defined as the surveillance through the use of a GPS (Global Positioning System) in order to trace the location of an object or an entity in a remote way. The details that a GPS system can provide are the latitude, longitude, the ground speed and of course the direction of movement.

The basics of a GPS: The need for better accuracy

A GPS is basically a constellation of twenty four satellites placed at certain points in space orbiting the Earth. It enables people on the ground to pinpoint on a specific location that is picked up by the satellites. The accuracy of the location that is indicated is somewhere close to 10 – 100 meters for most of the GPS devices. In case it is military grade equipment, the accuracy of the spot increases to 1 metre or less. The use of GPS has increased and has become low cost as well. People who own a smartphone, tablet or a GPS navigation system has access to and can make use of this modern technology.

The GPS technology is very valuable for the police, fire brigade, defense units and transportation or courier businesses. Other uses of this system can be the GPS guns that can fire a GPS tracker to avoid a dangerous pursuit by shooting at an escaping or a moving target by law enforcers. Other variants of this domain could be GPS dust that again comprises of tiny trackers. This method has also been employed for tracking employee locations.

However, the common concern regarding the GPS technology irrespective of its use has always been the accuracy of the location. In this regard, researchers at the University of California have come up with a new data processing method that has led to an increase in the accuracy of the transmitted position. This new system can now provide data that would be within the range of a few centimetres. This new development will be incorporated in the aviation, automobile and the naval systems apart from other precision technologies. The same accuracy can be achieved on mobile devices as well and the best thing would be that it is not going to increase the power consumption rate.

How did it all happen?

This new breakthrough was achieved after a reformulation of a series of equations which is the core of the process that determines the location of the GPS implant. The main driving force that led to this progress was the strong need of a system that would be beyond the metre level accuracy, especially in the case of autonomous cars and precision farming that need a higher level of accuracy.

In the case of cars, the applications controlling the safety system not only needs to know in which lane is a car running, but it also needs to know where exactly it is in that lane. Also, the information has to refresh at very high speeds as well as high bandwidth. Hence, GPS data along with from an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) were combined using INS (Internal Navigation system).