Global Autonomous Positioning in GNSS-Challenged Environments: A Bioinspired Strategy by Polarization Pattern

How to determine the absolute position of users, such as underwater autonomous vehicles, ships or other long-range vehicles, is a fascinating and challenging issue, especially in global navigation satellite system -denied environments. In this article, a bioinspired global autonomous positioning system based on polarized skylight is proposed. By comparing with the related literatures, the system is able to global positioning based on the degree of polarization pattern (DoP) pattern. To be more specific, in an attempt to use the DoP pattern for the geolocalization purposes, a bioinspired polarization compass is designed and in addition, an overall maximum DoP (MDoP) determination algorithm is presented. Moreover, on the basis of the MDoP value, the sun elevation angle can be ultimately measured by using the DoP pattern. The sun elevation angle difference algorithm is used to deduce the absolute position of users. Finally, the bioinspired global autonomous positioning system is developed and validated through experiments. The test results show that the location errors are in range of few kilometers, of which the latitude accuracy is 0.113° (1σ), and the longitude accuracy is 0.082° (1σ).