The Global Position System (GPS) has simplified many of our positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) estimation problems by providing global availability and high accuracy at all times.  In addition, for safety-critical applications, the integrity of GPS can be assured through self-monitoring, overbounding, and several other well-known statistical techniques.  As we move into an environment where GPS may be denied or spoofed, complementary navigation sources (e.g., vision, inertial, doppler, star tracking, etc.) may be used to provide PNT updates.  However, ensuring the integrity of these solutions is a technically challenging problem.  We are interested in studying and developing techniques for providing integrity in an estimation system that is using different types of navigation signals.  GPS may be one of those signals, but broadening the integrity framework of GPS to include other sensors, errors over time, possible (unknown) correlation between sensors, and on-line learning of models for different sensors are of interest.

Citations:

1. Juan Blanch, Todd Walter, and Per Enge. RAIM with optimal integrity and continuity allocations under multiple failures.IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 46(3):1235–1247, 2010

2. Clark Taylor and Jason Gross. A Comparative Analysis of Solution Separation-based RAIM and Robust Cost Functions in Factor Graph Optimization for GNSS Positioning, in Proceedings, Institute of Navigation International Technical Meeting (ION ITM), Jan 2026.

3. Chen Zhu, Michale Meure, and Christoph Gunther.  Integrity of Visual Navigation -- Developments, Challenges, and Prospects, Navigation -- Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 69(2), June 2022.

GPS-denied Navigation; Assurance; Integrity; correlation-agnostic fusion; signal modeling

citizenship

Open to U.S. citizens

level

Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants

Additional Benefits

relocation

Awardees who reside more than 50 miles from their host laboratory and remain on tenure for at least six months are eligible for paid relocation to within the vicinity of their host laboratory.

health insurance

A group health insurance program is available to awardees and their qualifying dependents in the United States.