Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications, Second Edition [Hardcover]

Elliott D. Kaplan (Editor), Christopher Hegarty (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1580538940 | ISBN-13: 978-1580538947 | Edition: 2

This thoroughly updated second edition of an Artech House bestseller brings together a team of leading experts who provide a current and comprehensive treatment of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The book covers all the latest advances in technology, applications, and systems. The second edition includes new chapters that explore the integration of GPS with vehicles and cellular telephones, new classes of satellite broadcast signals, the emerging GALILEO system, and new developments in the GPS marketplace. This single-source reference provides a quick overview of GPS essentials, an in-depth examination of advanced technical topics, and a review of emerging trends in the GPS industry.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elliott Kaplan is a principal engineer at the MITRE Corporation, Bedford, Massachusetts. He is the New England Section Officer of the Institute of Navigation.. He earned his M.S. in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. Christopher Hegarty is a senior principal engineer at the MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA. He received a D.Sc. in electrical engineering from The George Washington University and currently serves as editor of the Institute of Navigation's quarterly journal, NAVIGATION, and as a member of RTCA, Inc.'s Program Management Committee.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 726 pages
• Publisher: Artech House; 2 edition (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580538940
• ISBN-13: 978-1580538947
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GPS uses General Relativity, May 17, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications, Second Edition (Hardcover)

[A review of the SECOND EDITION, 2005.]

In the last 15 years, GPS has moved from an expensive and specialised application to a mass consumer market. There are numerous books on GPS; mostly directly at that mass readership. These typically concern how to use a device with a GPS receiver.

By contrast, this book is meant for the engineer who has to design such a device. It is a compendium of technical papers covering many aspects you are likely to need. And undoubtedly some you won't, which should be reassuring. Because it means that you do not have to read all of this book for it to be useful.

The sensitivity of the GPS satellites and the resultant GPS ground resolution is amazing, as can be appreciated from some of the papers in the book. Due mostly to the stability of the satellites' orbits and their onboard atomic clocks. Chapter 7 describes how GPS requires corrections due to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity! Not just Special Relativity. As a physicist, I found this fascinating. GPS is perhaps the first field where General Relativity is used, not to be tested, but as providing a necessary quantitative model for getting correct results. Akin to how Newton's Equations have been used for 300 years in ballistics. Granted, most readers will be engineers, who might find GR a trifle exotic.

The book also has good coverage of the Russian GLONASS system. Perhaps for those who also want to use this for redundancy. Or to combine the signals from this with GPS for enhanced resolution.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book though not without errors, March 6, 2009

By 

D. Fernandez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications, Second Edition (Hardcover)

Great reference not sure about it serving as a good text book as the section on Modulation, for instance, is not very detailed and not all that well put together. For instance, equations 4.7 does not follow from figure 4.5 if you use a repeating input sequence of +1, -1, +1 , -1, etc. Also equation 4.5 is itself as defined an average, not an absolute value.