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Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have evolved a new method of processing data from a Global Positioning System (GPS), which is leading to a higher level of "location accuracy". It works from the meter-level right down to a few centimeters.

This optimization can be integrated into developing autonomous vehicles, aviation and naval navigation systems and precision technologies. It can also enable users to reach totally accurate location data, right down to the centimeter, through mobile devices, but with no increasing processing power demand.

The technology is "based around the reformulation of a series of equations that are the core of the process used to determine a GPS receiver's position, which resulted in a lower level of required computational effort in combination with a higher level of accuracy", according to HNGN.

The research has been powered by the need for advanced GPS accuracy for applications such as autonomous vehicles and precision farming. They cannot rely on "meter-level accuracy".

"To fulfill both the automation and safety needs of driverless cars, some applications need to know not only which lane a car is in, but also where it is in that lane-and need to know it continuously at high rates and high bandwidth for the duration of the trip," Jay Farrell, research lead said in a press release.

Hence, Farrell and his team blended GPS measurements with information from an inertial measurement unit (IMU), harnessing an internal navigation system (INS). It helped users to get access to a more accurate and enhanced bandwidth.

"Achieving this level of accuracy with computational loads that are suitable for real-time applications on low-power processors will not only advance the capabilities of highly specialized navigation systems, like those used in driverless cars and precision agriculture, but it will also improve location services accessed through mobile phones and other personal devices, without increasing their cost," Farrell said.

The findings were published in Dec.8,2015 issue of IEEE Transaction on Control Systems Technology.