Performance evaluation of low-cost high-rate GNSS receivers for detection of horizontal and vertical displacements in real time: an opportunity in structural health monitoring
摘要
Monitoring horizontal and vertical displacements in real time plays an important role in preventing disasters, such as landslides and collapse of structures. Geodetic-grade GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers have demonstrated their ability to measure real-time displacements for dynamic events. However, these geodetic receivers are costly. On the other hand, low-cost GNSS receivers have gained popularity due to their high precision. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the performance of these low-cost devices in real-time displacement detection. Then, in this paper it is explored the potential contribution of low-cost high-rate GNSS receivers for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications. Within this context, a real-time displacement detection experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of the ZED-F9P low-cost multi-frequency receiver that simultaneously uses GNSS signals. With the implementation of such a receiver, different measurement configurations were set up: 15 multi-GNSS fusions, 4 sampling frequencies (1, 5, 10 and 20 Hz) and 4 elevation angles (8, 10, 12 and 15°). Based on the results, the multi-GNSS fusion G + E + C with 12° and a sampling frequency of 5 Hz presented the best performance in detecting horizontal displacements with a RMSE of 4 mm and a time to fix first ambiguity of 6 s. On the other hand, the multi-GNSS fusion G + E with 12° and sampled at 5 Hz was able to detect minimum vertical displacements of up to 5 mm with an accuracy of ± 2.5 mm. The findings reported in this paper demonstrate the ability of low-cost receivers to monitor displacements in real time, making them an ideal tool for monitoring dynamic phenomena.