Global Navigation Satellite System

Abstract

In your career in mining and civil engineering, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) mode of positioning will be a routine task. This is because this satellite system is fast revolutionizing these industries in a manner that its inventors never fathomed. Numerous books that cover the GNSS topics exist (see, e.g., Awange 2012 and the references therein). Their applications to Engineering works have also been treated in books e.g., Uren and Price (2010, Chapter 7) and Irvine and Maclennan (2006, Chapter 9). In this Chapter, we provide the fundamental of GNSS and refer the interested students to these books. In particular, the book by El-Rabbany (2006)is suitable for beginners as it is void of many equations found in other GNSS books while Awange (2012, 2017) offers examples of its application to environment, an area that could interest both mining and civil engineers dealing with environmental impacts of their operations. In §14.1, we show how the GNSS is revolutionizing the mining and civil engineering operations. §14.3 then presents the students with the basic operations of GNSS with GPS as an example. The errors that that underpin the GNSS operations are discussed in §14.4 before concluding the chapter in §14.5.