Objectives To solve the problems of high cost and high complexity of traditional estimation method of the moving vehicles attitude angle, an innovative vehicle heading and pitch estimation model based on optimized time-differenced carrier phase is proposed.
Methods First, we use observation data of one global navigation satellite system receiver and time-differenced carrier phase algorithm with a low-complexity to obtain accurate vehicle displacement vector, further estimate vehicle heading and pitch. In order to improve the estimation efficiency, we optimize the traditional time-differenced carrier phase algorithm.
Results Static and dynamic tests results show that the optimized time-differenced carrier phase is more efficient than the general carrier phase time-difference, and the processing time can be saved by about 40%.The proposed heading and pitch estimation model can provide accurate values of heading and pitch, whose root mean square error is less than 0.2° and maximum error is less than 1.5°.The accuracy of the model will not be affected by the accumulation of errors within one hour.
Conclusions This proposed model uses only one receiver to obtain heading and pitch of moving vehicles, which has the advantages of high accuracy, low cost, low complexity and high efficiency.