Precise Real-Time Relative Localization Using Single-Frequency GPS

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work in this dissertation could never have been made possible without the financial support of Vanderbilt University, a Google Research Award, and the National Science Foundation, and I am extremely grateful to NSF Project Manager Thyagarajan Nandagopal for taking a personal interest in this research. First and foremost, however, I would like to express my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to my advisor and mentor, Akos Ledeczi, for his incredible support throughout the entire research and development process, as well as for his academic and professional guidance, without which I would never have been able to navigate this crazy maze known as grad school. Of course, every project like this is a team effort, and I have to both acknowledge and thank two team members who worked closely with me on this endeavor: Janos Sallai and Peter Volgyesi. They participated in innumerable meetings that often involved large amounts of head-scratching and inevitably led to everyone leaving more confused about GPS than when we started, but it was during these brainstorming sessions that the largest amount of progress was made. I learned an immense amount from both of them and could never have seen this project to fruition without both their input and their insights. Finally, I would like to extend a huge level of gratitude to Miklos Maroti for always questioning EVERY assumption I made, as well as every last scrap of my math he could get his hands on. His desire to know, understand, and internalize every last detail of this work invariably helped me to understand it better myself, and his intuitive and unique way of approaching problems from a variety of different angles led to many of the most significant breakthroughs we encountered. I would also like to thank each and every member who served on my Ph.D. committee for expending both the time and effort to understand this research and for taking an active interest in my journey through the graduate school process. I know that it takes a significant amount of time away from your own research interests to aid a student in his or her pursuit of a doctoral degree, but I truly appreciate the investment you made in seeing me through to the end of this milestone. Finally, I have to extend my deepest gratitude to my parents, Ron and Emily Hedgecock, for their constant, unwavering support over the years. …