Comparison of Global Navigation Satellite System Devices on Speed Tracking in Road (Tran)SPORT Applications

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are, in addition to being most widely used vehicle navigation method, becoming popular in sport-related tests. There is a lack of knowledge regarding tracking speed using GNSS, therefore the aims of this study were to examine under dynamic conditions: (1) how accurate technologically different GNSS measure speed and (2) how large is latency in speed measurements in real time applications. Five GNSSs were tested. They were fixed to a car's roof-rack: a  smart phone, a wrist watch, a handheld device, a professional system for testing vehicles and a high-end Real Time Kinematics (RTK) GNSS. The speed data were recorded and analyzed during rapid acceleration and deceleration as well as at steady speed. The study produced four main findings. Higher frequency and high quality GNSS receivers track speed at least at comparable accuracy to a vehicle speedometer. All GNSS systems measured maximum speed and movement at a constant speed well. Acceleration and deceleration have different level of error at different speeds. Low cost GNSS receivers operating at 1 Hz sampling rate had high latency (up to 2.16 s) and are not appropriate for tracking speed in real time, especially during dynamic movements.