IPNL receives Google Unrestricted Research Grant

The Intelligent Positioning and Navigation Laboratory received a Google Unrestricted Research Grant to support ongoing research on improving GNSS positioning accuracy on Android smartphones. Google’s research grant programs provide funding to academic researchers working on problems aligned with Google’s technical interests, and the unrestricted format gives recipients the flexibility to direct funds toward the most promising avenues of investigation without constraints on specific deliverables or intellectual property obligations.

Smartphone GNSS positioning presents a distinct set of challenges compared to positioning with dedicated navigation receivers. Android devices rely on low-cost GNSS chipsets with limited antenna gain and are subject to severe multipath interference and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signal reception, particularly in dense urban environments. Since Google made raw GNSS measurements available through the Android API beginning with Android 7.0 (Nougat), the research community has been able to develop and test advanced positioning algorithms directly on consumer smartphones. This access has opened opportunities for innovations in measurement-level processing, carrier-phase positioning, and the integration of GNSS with other onboard sensors such as inertial measurement units and barometers.

IPNL’s work in this area focuses on robust positioning methods that can account for the noisy, constrained measurement environment typical of smartphones. The lab’s expertise in urban GNSS positioning, non-Gaussian error modeling, and factor graph optimization is directly applicable to the challenge of improving location accuracy on Android devices. This grant follows Dr. Hsu’s 20-month visiting researcher position with the Google Android Context team, during which he contributed directly to smartphone positioning improvements.

The Google Unrestricted Research Grant enables IPNL to continue advancing algorithms and models that may ultimately benefit the billions of Android users worldwide who depend on accurate location services for navigation, ride-hailing, delivery, and other location-based applications.

Source: polyu-rio