A distributed signal of opportunity (SOP)-aided inertial navigation system (INS) framework is presented and studied for vehicles collaborating in an imperfect communication channel. The following scenario is considered. Multiple autonomous vehicles (AVs) are aiding their onboard INSs with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals. The AVs draw pseudorange observations from unknown SOPs in their vicinity and fuse these observations through an estimator to improve the quality of their navigation solution while simultaneously mapping the SOPs’ states. While navigating, GNSS signals become unavailable, at which point the AVs continue navigating by aiding their INSs’ with SOP pseudorange observations. The AVs exchange INS data, pseudorange observations, and state estimates over a lossy channel. This paper presents a distributed framework for AVs to share INS information and studies this framework by varying both the number of collaborating AVs and the probability of communication failure. Simulation and experimental results for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are presented demonstrating the performance of the distributed framework in lossy communication channels.
