Avionics
FAA Researching Advanced RAIM for GPS Approaches
The FAA is exploring the potential of aircraft-based augmentation of global navigation satellite system signals.
earth via satelite
(Photo: Pixabay)

The FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center is conducting research that could lead to improved GPS integrity allowing further development of low-cost vertically guided instrument approaches.

The current integrity system for lateral guidance only is receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) and it doesn’t depend on ground stations or other infrastructure. “RAIM allows aviation receivers to detect a GPS satellite fault and in many cases isolate the offending satellite and remove it from usage by the receiver,” according to the FAA. For vertical guidance integrity, the FAA’s wide-area augmentation system (WAAS) uses ground stations to ensure accuracy of the GPS signals.