Position Location And Navigation (PLAN) Group
Welcome to our new web site. An archived version of our previous site (pre-December 2020) is available here.
Click here for a virtual tour of our lab
The Position, Location And Navigation (PLAN) Group is part of the Department of Geomatics Engineering. We are dedicated to the research, development and improvement of wireless positioning and navigation technologies for outdoor and indoor use. Most of our work is encompassed in the following research areas:
GNSS Signal Processing
- Signal acquisition and tracking algorithm development, including high accuracy
- Multi-frequency, multi-systems signal processing enhancements
- Impact of signal attenuation and High Sensitivity GNSS, including Assisted GNSS (AGNSS)
Sensor Augmentation
- Tight and ultra-tight integration of GNSS with inertial and other sensors
- Impact of oscillators on signal integration
- Multi-sensor augmentation
- Ground based RF ranging systems and augmentation
Applications
- Software GNSS receiver development
- Centimetre-level accuracy positioning and multi-frequency ambiguity resolution
- Velocity and attitude determination
- Atmospheric propagation effects
- Indoor, pedestrian and vehicular navigation
Latest News
Monday, December 9, 2024
Congratulations to Christian Phillips
Christian Phillips successfully defended his MSc thesis, "Machine Learning for Robust Detection and Mitigation of GNSS Multipath" this morning. Christian completed his MSc project part-time while working full-time at Hexagon Autonomy and Positioning.
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Congratulations to Satinath Debnath
Satinath Debnath successfully defended his MSc thesis, “Ultra-Wideband Trained Artificial Neural Networks for Bluetooth Proximity Detection in Small Crowded Areas” , this afternoon. Satinath joined us in September 2021, initially only virtually and then in person later in the term. He was previously an engineer at Accord Systems in India. He has been hired by CMC Electronics in Montreal and will start there after he completes his minor revisions.
Friday, August 4, 2023
Thank you to Hexagon Autonomy and Positioning
A special thank you to Hexagon Autonomy and Positioning for their generous donation of 8 new NovAtel OEM7 GNSS receivers to our lab. This donation will allow us to continue doing multi-frequency multi-constellation GNSS research using the best equipment for at least the next 15 years.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Congratulations to Rene Manzano
Rene Manzano successfully defended his PhD thesis, “Sequential Importance Resampling Particle Filter for Ambiguity Resolution” , this morning. He will be celebrating tonight with several members of his family who are visiting for the occasion, before starting on his revisions. Rene has been hired by Hexagon Autonomy and Positioning, aka, NovAtel for a position in their corrections services group.
Friday, February 24, 2023
Smartphones may be our greatest tool for outdoor and indoor navigation
Kyle O'Keefe from University of Calgary and Richard Langley from University of New Brunswick were featured in an episode of CBC Radio Spark.
Recent Publications
Agarwal, N., & O’Keefe, K. (2025). Cycle Slip Repair for Single-Frequency Smartphone GNSS Using the Best Integer Equivariant Estimator. 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), 1536–1543. http://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?jp=p&articleID=20190
Li, H., Tang, S., O’Keefe, K., & Closas, P. (2025). Cross Ambiguity Function Resolution Enhancement Using Neural Networks for Direct Position Estimation Computational Cost Reduction. 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), 1107–1113. http://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?jp=p&articleID=20208
Mah, C., & O’Keefe, K. (2025). Simulation of the Impact of Low-Earth-Orbit GNSS on Carrier Phase Ambiguity Resolution. 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), 697–703. http://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?jp=p&articleID=20066
Blois, M., & O’Keefe, K. (2025). Inertial Measurement Aiding for an Attitude-Aided Baseline Spoofing Detection Technique. 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), 268–272. http://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?jp=p&articleID=20219
Agarwal, N., & O’Keefe, K. (2025). Hybrid Cycle Slip Detection Method for Smartphone Global Navigation Satellite System. Proceedings of the European Navigation Conference 2024, 88, 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2025088010
Liu, B., Gao, Y., & O’Keefe, K. (2025). Double Chi-Squared Distributions-Based Advanced RAIM for Air Transportation. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2025.3549071
Phillips, C. (2025). Machine Learning for Robust Detection and Mitigation of GNSS Multipath [M.Sc. Thesis, UCGE Reports Number 20597, University of Calgary]. https://hdl.handle.net/1880/120384