Filter-based GPS structural vibration monitoring methods and comparison of their performances

The purpose of GPS structural vibration monitoring is to obtain information on the frequency and amplitude of vibrations based on GPS observations that are often affected by various errors. Filters are frequently used to improve GPS accuracy and to retrieve vibration signals from GPS observational series. This paper studies the performances of four commonly used filters, i.e., Vondrak, wavelet, adaptive FIR and Kalman filters, for such applications. Controlled experiments are carried out and the results show that the capability of GPS in tracking structural dynamics and complex signals can be improved with any of the filters. The performances of Vondrak and wavelet filters are almost the same and superior to the adaptive FIR and Kalman filters. Recommendations are given for the selection of filters and filter parameters for different situations based on an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the filters.