WAAS GPS

The more you read and compare prices, WAAS is far superior to Differential GPS for our purposes and budgets.

Therefore, we might as well get a solid interface WAAS GPS that has either USB or Serial output with a reasonable color screen, data logging capabilities and external antenna (that's the tricky part)

  • Derichs would like to note that that yellow squarish USB gps that he glued the cable to is WAAS enabled.
  • Potential WAAS GPS, to buy,
    • Garmin- 76 TM
    • Garmin 76CS useful but color is overkill
    • Edge 305 (waterproof !) - Uses ANT and uses SiRFstarIII™ with Driving Data features
    • Rino 530 Not as good as Edge, however "easy to see and navigate to family or friends with Rhinos at an amusement park"
    • GPSmap60csX has a lot of features, maybe too many for RAS applications

Differential GPS

Hey people, no matter what we end up doing next semester, we need a high quality GPS to do well at any outdoor robot competition , I've looked around a bit at different vendors, the industry low cost differential GPS standard seems to be trimble, Farm GPS Novatel is the 10,000 GPS most of the really elite teams use, we are not at that level, but definitely worthy of the Trimble !

Differential IGVC References

"For location of DGPS waypoints, a Trimble DSM 132 DGPS is used. This provides sub-meter accuracy with an update rate of 10Hz. The Trimble is connected to the main computer over an RS-232 connection at 19200 bps. The Trimble was chosen because of its high accuracy and reasonable price. Other systems provided more accurate information, but at a much higher price. The extra level of accuracy of more expensive units was not necessary for the 2 meter radius required of the IGVC. " taken from Calculon 2005 IGVC paper,

~From Andy Lynch's message to Leaders list in June, 2006

WAAS IGVC References

Here are a few References from IGVC teams using WAAS

  • LTU - 2003 paper, used a Garmin WAAS Ventrue (advertised ~3 meters)
  • Emery Riddle - 2002 paper, used Garmin 16 channel WAAS
    • "GPS-16 WAAS-enabled system should have an accuracy of less than 3 meters with a 95% confidence. Typical GPS accuracy compares at 15 meters, while differential GPS using US Coast Guard signals typically have accuracies in the range of 3-5 meters. "
  • Cincinnati - Bearcat 2005
    • "WAAS accuracy of standard GPS signal- 3meters,RS-232 serial port ..., External antenna for accurate reception, External power capability to ensure constant source of regulated power, Based on the above selection criteria the Garmin-76TM GPS was chosen as the unit to provide GPS navigational ability to the robot. The Garmin-76 TM unit provides all of the above-mentioned features in addition to other features not used in the current navigation algorithm. "