| 1. |
- Lind, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)
- 2021
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In: eLife. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions.
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| 2. |
- Bixby, H., et al.
(author)
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Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults
- 2019
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 569:7755, s. 260-4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.
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| 3. |
- Mishra, A, et al.
(author)
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Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents' growth and development
- 2023
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 615:7954, s. 874-883
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.
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| 4. |
- Alizadeh Khameneh, Mohammad Amin
(author)
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On Optimisation and Design of Geodetic Networks
- 2015
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Optimisation of a geodetic network is performed to provide its pre-set quality requirements. Today, this procedure is almost run with the aid of developed analytical approaches, where the human intervention in the process cycle is limited to defining the criteria. The existing complication of optimisation problem was terminated by classifying it into several stages. By performing these steps, we aim to design a network with the best datum, configuration and the observation weights, which meets the precision, reliability and cost criteria.In this thesis, which is a compilation of four papers in scientific journals, we investigate the optimisation problem by developing some new methods in simulated and real applications.On the first attempt, the impact of different constraints in using a bi-objective optimisation model is investigated in a simulated network. It is particularly prevalent among surveyors to encounter inconsistencies between the controlling constraints, such as precision, reliability and cost. To overcome this issue in optimisation, one can develop bi-objective or multi-objective models, where more criteria are considered in the object function. We found out that despite restricting the bi-objective model with precision and reliability constraints in this study, there is no significant difference in results compared to the unconstrained model. Nevertheless, the constrained models have strict controls on the precision of net points and observation reliabilities.The importance of optimisation techniques in optimal design of displacement monitoring networks leads to the development of a new idea, where all the observations of two epochs are considered in the optimisation procedure. Traditionally, an observation plan is designed for a displacement network and repeated for the second epoch. In the alternative method, by using the Gauss-Helmert method, the variances of all observations are estimated instead of their weights to perform the optimisation. This method delivers two observation plans for the two epochs and provides the same displacement precision as the former approach, while it totally removes more observations from the plan.To optimise a displacement monitoring network by considering a sensitivity criterion as a main factor in defining the capacity of a network in detecting displacements, a real case study is chosen. A GPS displacement monitoring network is established in the Lilla Edet municipality in the southwest of Sweden to investigate possible landslides. We optimised the existing monitoring network by considering all quality criteria, i.e. precision, reliability and cost to enable the network for detecting 5 mm displacement at the net points. The different optimisation models are performed on the network by assuming single baseline observations in each measurement session. A decrease of 17% in the number of observed baselines is yielded by the multi-objective model. The observation plan with fewer baselines saves cost, time and effort on the project, while it provides the demanded quality requirements.The Lilla Edet monitoring network is also used to investigate the idea, where we assume more precise instruments in the second of two sequential epochs. In this study, we use a single-objective model of precision, and constrained it to reliability. The precision criterion is defined such that it provides the sensitivity of the network in detecting displacements and has a better variance-covariance matrix than at the first epoch. As the observations are GPS baselines, we assumed longer observation time in the second epoch to obtain higher precision. The results show that improving the observation precision in the second epoch yields an observation plan with less number of baselines in that epoch. In other words, separate observation plans with different configurations are designed for the monitoring network, considering better observation precision for the latter epoch.
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| 5. |
- Alizadeh Khameneh, Mohammad Amin, 1983-
(author)
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Optimal Design in Geodetic GNSS-based Networks
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- An optimal design of a geodetic network helps the surveying engineers maximise the efficiency of the network. A number of pre-defined quality requirements, i.e. precision, reliability, and cost, of the network are fulfilled by performing an optimisation procedure. Today, this is almost always accomplished by implementing analytical solutions, where the human intervention in the process cycle is limited to defining the requirements. Nevertheless, a trial and error method can be beneficial to some applications. In order to analytically solve an optimisation problem, it can be classified to different orders, where an optimal datum, configuration, and optimal observation weights can be sought such that the precision, reliability and cost criteria are satisfied.In this thesis, which is a compilation of six peer-reviewed papers, we optimised and redesigned a number of GNSS-based monitoring networks in Sweden by developing new methodologies. In addition, optimal design and efficiency of total station establishment with RTK-GNSS is investigated in this research.Sensitivity of a network in detecting displacements is of importance for monitoring purposes. In the first paper, a precision criterion was defined to enable a GNSS-based monitoring network to detect 5 mm displacements at each network point. Developing an optimisation model by considering this precision criterion, reliability and cost yielded a decrease of 17% in the number of observed single baselines implying a reliable and precise network at lower cost. The second paper concerned a case, where the precision of observations could be improved in forthcoming measurements. Thus a new precision criterion was developed to consider this assumption. A significant change was seen in the optimised design of the network for subsequent measurements. As yet, the weight of single baselines was subject to optimisation, while in the third paper, the effect of mathematical correlations between GNSS baselines was considered in the optimisation. Hence, the sessions of observations, including more than two receivers, were optimised. Four out of ten sessions with three simultaneous operating receivers were eliminated in a monitoring network with designed displacement detection of 5 mm. The sixth paper was the last one dealing with optimisation of GNSS networks. The area of interest was divided into a number of three-dimensional elements and the precision of deformation parameters was used in developing a precision criterion. This criterion enabled the network to detect displacements of 3 mm at each point.A total station can be set up in the field by different methods, e.g. free station or setup over a known point. A real-time updated free station method uses RTK-GNSS to determine the coordinates and orientation of a total station. The efficiency of this method in height determination was investigated in the fourth paper. The research produced promising results suggesting using the method as an alternative to traditional levelling under some conditions. Moreover, an optimal location for the total station in free station establishment was studied in the fifth paper. It was numerically shown that the height component has no significant effect on the optimal localisation.
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| 6. |
- Abrehdary, Majid
(author)
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Recovering Moho parameters using gravimetric and seismic data
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Isostasy is a key concept in geoscience to interpret the state of mass balance between the Earth’s crust and mantle. There are four well-known isostatic models: the classical models of Airy/Heiskanen (A/H), Pratt/Hayford (P/H), and Vening Meinesz (VM) and the modern model of Vening Meinesz-Moritz (VMM). The first three models assume a local and regional isostatic compensation, whereas the latter one supposes a global isostatic compensation scheme.A more satisfactory test of isostasy is to determine the Moho interface. The Moho discontinuity (or Moho) is the surface, which marks the boundary between the Earth’s crust and upper mantle. Generally, the Moho interface can be mapped accurately by seismic observations, but limited coverage of seismic data and economic considerations make gravimetric or combined gravimetric-seismic methods a more realistic technique for imaging the Moho interface either regional or global scales.It is the main purpose of this dissertation to investigate an isostatic model with respect to its feasibility to use in recovering the Moho parameters (i.e. Moho depth and Moho density contrast). The study is mostly limited to the VMM model and to the combined approach on regional and global scales. The thesis briefly includes various investigations with the following specific subjects:1) to investigate the applicability and quality of satellite altimetry data (i.e. marine gravity data) in Moho determination over the oceans using the VMM model, 2) to investigate the need for methodologies using gravimetric data jointly with seismic data (i.e. combined approach) to estimate both the Moho depth and Moho density contrast over regional and global scales, 3) to investigate the spherical terrain correction and its effect on the VMM Moho determination, 4) to investigate the residual isostatic topography (RIT, i.e. difference between actual topography and isostatic topography) and its effect in the VMM Moho estimation, 5) to investigate the application of the lithospheric thermal-pressure correction and its effect on the Moho geometry using the VMM model, 6) Finally, the thesis ends with the application of the classical isostatic models for predicting the geoid height.The main input data used in the VMM model for a Moho recovery is the gravity anomaly/disturbance corrected for the gravitational contributions of mass density variation due in different layers of the Earth’s crust (i.e. stripping gravity corrections) and for the gravity contribution from deeper masses below the crust (i.e. non-isostatic effects). The corrections are computed using the recent seismic crustal model CRUST1.0.Our numerical investigations presented in this thesis demonstrate that 1) the VMM approach is applicable for estimating Moho geometry using a global marine gravity field derived by satellite altimetry and that the possible mean dynamic topography in the marine gravity model does not significantly affect the Moho determination, 2) the combined approach could help in filling-in the gaps in the seismic models and it also provides good fit to other global and regional models more than 90 per cent of the locations, 3) despite the fact that the lateral variation of the crustal depth is rather smooth, the terrain affects the Moho result most significantly in many areas, 4) the application of the RIT correction improves the agreement of our Moho result with some published global Moho models, 5) the application of the lithospheric thermal-pressure correction improves the agreement of VMM Moho model with some other global Moho models, 6) the geoid height cannot be successfully represented by the classical models due to many other gravitational signals from various mass variations within the Earth that affects the geoid.
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| 7. |
- Bagherbandi, Mohammad, 1977-
(author)
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An Isostatic Earth Crustal Model : and Its Applications
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The Mohorovičič discontinuity (Moho), which is the surface separating the Earth’s crust from the mantle, is of great interest among geoscientists. The Moho depth can be determined by seismic and gravimetric methods. The seismic methods are expensive, time-consuming and suffer from lack of global coverage of data, while the gravimetric methods use inexpensive and mostly already available global and regional data based on an isostatic model. The main reasons for studying an isostatic model are on one hand the gaps and uncertainties of the seismic models, and, on the other hand, the generous availability of gravity data from global models for the gravimetric-isostatic model. In this study, we present a new gravimetric-isostatic Moho model, called the Vening Meinesz-Moritz (VMM) model. Also, a combined Moho model based on seismic and gravimetric models is presented. Classical isostatic hypotheses assume that the topographic potential is fully compensated at all wavelengths, while is not the case in reality. We found that the maximum degree of compensation for the topographic potential based on the new Moho model is 60, corresponding to the resolution of about 330 km. Other (dynamic) isostatic effects (such as temporal compensation, plate tectonics, post-glacial rebound, etc) should be considered as well, which are disregarded in this thesis. Numerical results imply that the dynamic phenomena affect mostly the long-wavelengths. The VMM model is applied for different purposes. The Moho density contrast is an important parameter for estimating the Moho depth, and we present a technique to simultaneously estimate Moho depth and density contrast by the VMM and seismic models. Another application is the recovery of gravity anomaly from Satellite Gravity Gradiometry (SGG) data by a smoothing technique, and we show that the VMM model performs better than the Airy-Heiskanen isostatic model. We achieved an rms difference of 4 mGal for the gravity anomaly estimated from simulated GOCE data in comparison with EGM08, and this result is better than direct downward continuation of the data without smoothing. We also present a direct method to recover Moho depth from the SGG mission, and we show that the recovered Moho is more or less of the same quality as that obtained from terrestrial gravimetric data (with an rms error of 2 km). Moreover, a strategy is developed for creating substitutes for missing GOCE data in Antarctica, where there is a polar gap of such data. The VMM model is further used for constructing a Synthetic Earth Gravity Model (SEGM). The topographic-isostatic potential is simple to apply for the SEGM, and the latter can be an excellent tool to fill data gaps, extending the EGMs to higher degrees and validating a recovery technique of the gravity field from a satellite mission. Regional and global tests of the SEGM yield a relative error of less than 3 % vs. EGM08 to degree 2160.
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| 8. |
- Gido, Nureldin A. A.
(author)
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Monitoring lithospheric motions by Satellite geodesy
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Understanding of global and local Earth’s dynamic processes is of great importance to the Earth’s system knowledge, human life, and sustainability goals (e.g. climatic change and geo-hazard assessment, etc.). The processes are largely affected by the Earth's mass distribution and redistribution, which can be quantified and modelled using simultaneous and complementary data from various geoscience and environmental near earth-orbiting artificial satellites. In this thesis, which is based on five peer-reviewed papers, we study the lithospheric motion and the Earth’s mass change in terms of gravity variation, using a combination of geodetic satellite data and non-geodetic observations. The first paper is concerned with using of gravimetric approach to model sub-crustal horizontal stresses in the Earth’s mantle and their temporal changes using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, caused by geodynamical processes such as mantle convection, in Fennoscandia region. We show that the determined horizontal stresses obtained by a gravimetric method are consistent with tectonics and seismic activities. In addition, the secular rate of change of the horizontal stress, which is within 95 kPa/year, is larger outside the uplift dome than inside in the study area. In the second paper, permafrost thawing and its associated gravity change, in terms of groundwater storage (GWS) anomalies changes is studied using the GRACE data and other satellites (e.g. AIRS) and ground-based observations in the northern high-latitude regions. The results of a preliminary numerical analysis reveal a high correlation between the secular trends of greenhouse gases (CO2), temperature, and the equivalent water thickness in the selected regions. Furthermore, the GRACE-based GWS estimates attributed to the permafrost thawing is increased at the annual rates of 3 to 4 cm/year in selected study areas. The third paper investigates the large-scale GRACE-based GWS changes together with different hydrological models over the major oil reservoirs in Sudan. The outcomes are correlated with the available oil wells production data. Moreover, using the freely available Sentinel-1 data, the ground surface deformation associated with oil and water depletion is studied. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between the GRACE-based GWS anomalies and the extracted oil and water volumes. The trend of GWS anomaly changes due to water and oil depletion varies from -18.5 ± 6.3 to -6.2 ± 1.3 mm/year using the CSR GRACE monthly solutions and the best tested hydrological model in this study. Moreover, our Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data analysis using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) method shows high rate of subsidence, i.e. -24.5 ± 0.85, -23.8 ± 0.96, -14.2 ± 0.85 and -6 ± 0.88 mm/year, over the selected study area.In the fourth paper, a combined Moho model using seismic and gravity data is determined to investigate the relationship between the isostatic state of the lithosphere and seismic activities in the study area (which includes East Africa, Egypt, Congo and Saudi Arabia). Our results show that isostatic equilibrium and compensation state are closely correlated to the seismicity patterns in the study area. This paper presents a method to determine the crustal thickness and crust-mantle density contrast, and consequently one can detect low-density contrast (about 200 kg/m3) and thin crust (about 30 km) near the triple junction plate tectonics in East Africa (Afar triple junction), which confirms the state of over-compensation in the rift valley areas. Furthermore, the density contrast structure of the crust-mantle shows a large correlation with the earthquake activity, sub-crustal stress and volcanic distribution across East Africa. The fifth and last paper investigates the ground surface deformation of Gävle city in Sweden using Sentinel-1 data and PSI technique, as well as analyzing the historical leveling data. The PSI technique is used to map the location of risk zones, and their ongoing subsidence rate. Our PSI analysis reveals that the centre of Gävle city is relatively stable with minor deformation ranging between -2.0 mm/year and +2.0 mm/year in the vertical and East-West components. Furthermore, the land surface toward the northeast of the city is significantly subsiding with an annual rate of about -6 mm/year. The comparison at sparse locations shows a close agreement between the subsidence rates obtained from precise leveling and PSI results. The regional quaternary deposit distribution was correlated with PSI results, and it shows that the subsidence areas are mostly located in zones where the sub-surface layer is marked by artificial fill materials.
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| 9. |
- Joud, Seyed Mehdi Shafiei, 1980-
(author)
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Contributions of Satellite Geodesy to Post-Glacial Rebound Research
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) is a global and long-term process in the Earth, which began 21.5 millennia ago, according to many ice history modellers. One way to understand the processes of the Earth’s interior, the crustal deformation, and a key correction to estimate the climatological parameters is obtained by studying GIA.Our main objectives are to improve the gravimetric GIA modelling by utilizing some of the satellite geodesy missions leading to the land uplift and geoid rate models and to determine the geoid depression due to GIA. The isostatic rebound of the solid Earth is observable in some regions, e.g. in Fennoscandia, North America and Greenland, using some geodetic techniques, such as GPS. In view of physical geodesy, the mantle mass flow in the GIA process perturbs the observed gravity from a hypothetic isostatic state, which can be measured using satellite gravimetry techniques. We will extract the static and temporal gravity signals due to GIA from satellite gravimetry and present a mathematical relation to determining the solid Earth vertical movement due to GIA leading to gravimetric and combined land uplift rate models.We use an Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) determined from a number of satellite missions to produce regional geoid models and remove the perturbing effect of the crustal variation and topography from the geoid height resulting in topographic-isostatic geoid models. Then the geoid height signal due to GIA will be extracted using a spectral window and a multiple regression analysis. In North America and Fennoscandia, we find that maximum depressions of 13.8 and 9.2 m of the topographic-isostatic geoid model, respectively, are due to GIA.Using some analysing methods, a number of high-resolution regional gravimetric modelling methods have been investigated with respect to their compatibility with the GPS data and the data from the GIA forward models. We determine the GIA signal of the temporal geoid change by exploiting the monthly gravity field from Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission and investigate the capability of three mathematical methods, namely regression, principal component, and independent component analysis (ICA) in extracting the secular trend of the GRACE monthly gravity data. One of the results of this investigation is the success of the ICA method relative to the other methods of gravimetric modelling.Finally, we present a least squares combined Land Uplift rate Model (LUM) by assimilating the data from GPS and the gravimetric model, determined using the ICA method, into the GIA forward model and compare it with a recent GIA forward model, namely ICE-6G_C (Peltier et al. 2015). Their discrepancies, for the whole areas subject to epeirogeny in North America and Fennoscandia, vary from -1.8 to +3.3, and -0.45 to +0.75 mm/a, respectively, while for the areas near the centre of the uplifting regions these two models are shown to be in a complete agreement.
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| 10. |
- Zhao, Yueming
(author)
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Key Technologies in Low-cost Integrated Vehicle Navigation Systems
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Vehicle navigation systems incorporate on-board sensors/signal receivers and provide necessary positioning and guidance information for land, marine, airborne and space vehicles. Among different navigation solutions, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and an Inertial Navigation System (INS) are two basic navigation systems. Due to their complementary characters in many aspects, a GPS/INS integrated navigation system has been a hot research topic in recent decades. Both advantages and disadvantages of each individual system and their combination are analysed in this thesis.The Micro Electrical Mechanical Sensors (MEMS) successfully solved the problems of price, size and weight with traditional INS, and hence are widely applied in GPS/INS integrated systems. The main problem of MEMS is the large sensor errors, which rapidly degrade the navigation performance in an exponential speed. By means of different methods, such as autoregressive model, Gauss-Markov process, Power Spectral Density and Allan Variance, we analyse the stochastic errors within the MEMS sensors. The test results show that different methods give similar estimates of stochastic error sources. An equivalent model of coloured noise components (random walk, bias instability and ramp noise) is given.Three levels of GPS/IMU integration structures, i.e. loose, tight and ultra-tight GPS/IMU navigation, are introduced with a brief analysis of each character. The loose integration principles are presented with detailed equations as well as the INS navigation principles. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is introduced as the data fusion algorithm, which is the core of the whole navigation system. Based on the system model, we show the propagation of position standard errors with the tight integration structure under different scenarios. Even less than 4 observable GNSS satellites can contribute to the integrated system, especially for the orientation errors. A real test with loose integration is carried out, and the EKF performance is analysed in detail.Since the GPS receivers are normally working with a digital map, the map matching principle and its link-choosing problem are briefly introduced. This problem is proposed to be solved by the lane detection from real-time images. The procedures for the lane detection based on image processing are presented. The test on high ways, city streets and pathways are successfully carried out, and analyses with possible solutions are given for some special failure situations.To solve the large error drift of the IMU, we propose to support the IMU orientation with camera motion estimation from image pairs. First the estimation theory and computer vision principles are briefly introduced. Then both point and line matches algorithms are given. Finally the L1-norm estimator with balanced adjustment is proposed to deal with possible mismatches (outliers). Tests and comparisons with the RANSAC algorithm are also presented.For the latest trend of MEMS chip sensors, their industry and market are introduced. To evaluate the MEMS navigation performance, we augment the EKF with an equivalent coloured noise model, and the basic observability analysis is given. A realistic simulated navigation test is carried out with single and multiple MEMS sensors, and a sensor array of 5-10 sensors are recommended according to the test results and analysis. Finally some suggestions for future research are proposed.
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