This course will take you through

the operation of GPS, from the system of

satellites themselves, to the design and
operation of the receivers.
To get a clear picture of how
everything fits together, lets start by
imagining the launch of the GPS satellites
into space, and build from there.
In week one, this week,
we are covering the GPS system in general.
The goal of this week is for
you to have a clear overview of
the system and the course, so
that each subsequent week you can relate
to the new material, that has come before.
In week two, we will jump straight into
the detail of how to compute position.
The goal of week two is to know how ranges
from satellites are turned into position,
including understanding
the basic equations involved.
We will also introduce briefly
the concept of high accuracy DGPS, or
differential GPS.
The goal of this is to
understand the basics,
of how GPS can give you
centimeter accuracy.
As you learn about computing
position the question will arise,
how do we know exactly
where the satellites are?
In week three we will learn about
satellite orbits, and the structure of
the signals from the satellites, and
how these carry the information to us.
Then in week four, we are ready
to learn about receiver design.
The goal of this week is to understand
the basics of signal power, and
how a receiver acquires the GPS signal.
In week five we move on to
modern implementations,
in particular assisted GPS,
which allows your smart phone to
acquire a GPS signal much faster
than it otherwise would have.
The goal of this week is to learn how
AGPS provides the satellite orbit data,
and how this speeds up the signal
acquisition at the GPS receiver.
We will also look into how
AGPS enables high sensitivity,
in properly designed receivers.
Finally, in week six we will look at
future GNSS including other GPS like
systems, such as Glonast from Russia,
Beto from China,
Galileo from Europe,
QZSS from Japan and IRNSS from India.
The goal is to understand the similarities
to, and differences from GPS.
We will also learn about GPS3, the future
GPS system from the United States.
In summary, one,
we'll get a clear overview and
system of the course this week.
Two, you'll know how ranges from
the satellites are turned into position.
Three, learn about satellite orbits and
the structure of the signals.
Four, understand signal power and
a how a receiver acquires the GPS signal.
Five, learn how AGPS speeds up signal
acquisition and enables high sensitivity,
and six, meet the future GNS
systems including GPS three.
So in your journey through this course,
you'll find that the lectures
are quite technical and so
at the end of each week, we have
a module called navigation in our lives.
We will take a break from the technical
and just look at the practical, and
how various aspects of
navigation have affected us and
do affect us, today we'll,
we'll look at navigation in aircraft.
We'll look at the environmental
tragedy of the Exon Valdez, and
what the navigation issues were there.
We look at GPS in sports,
GPS apps in smartphones, and
finally how GPS is nowadays
almost everywhere in our lives.
Happy travels.