Development of an accurate positioning system using low-cost L1 GPS receivers

The present article reports the development of an accurate positioning system based on GPS technology. This system employs an inexpensive L1 GPS receiver and a small patch antenna. As these devices are very inexpensive and small, they can be attached to an array of sensor nodes of a wireless network sensing system. In the present study, we first develop a program that can be used to estimate the relative positions of receivers and evaluate its performance. Next, a number of experiments were conducted to assess the performance of the inexpensive L1 GPS receiver with a patch antenna. Compared to the results obtained using a sophisticated antenna, the present measurement system, which uses a patch antenna, is less accurate. However, the present system achieves an accuracy of 1-2 cm. This system can be used as a localization system for the sensor nodes or, because of its accuracy, as a displacement monitoring system.