Development and evaluation of vehicle navigation software utilizing the global positioning system

This thesis examines the Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality and associated problems to demonstate the feasibility of building a simple software vehicle navigation system, suitable for use with a notepad Personal Computer (PC) and a single autonomous, vehicle-mounted GPS receiver. There are a number of associated problems and issues with the development of such a system including: GPS signal acqusition and reliability; degree of accuracy if the determined GPS position; the effect of Selective Availability; and the type of computerized map implementation. A brief history of satellite navigation is included in the thesis to serve as background informtion to how GPS evolved into what it is today, with sections detailing what GPS can do and what its shortcomings are. [...]