Patent ID: 7027918

Claim:
A method of obtaining a position solution in a satellite navigation system for an object using a plurality of antennas, the antennas connected to at least one receiver, the antennas having a common reference clock, the method comprising: a. providing the common reference clock for each antenna; b. receiving satellite signals at each antenna; c. the receiver determining the position solution for the antennas using an external constraint in addition to the common reference clock and the satellite signals received at the antennas, wherein the external constraint is independent of received satellite signals, the determining comprising: calculating an integer cycle ambiguity resolution for input signals to compute position at two or more antennas; predicting signal information from all potentially visible satellites using the calculated antenna positions; and initializing the processor of the receiver for all the potentially visible satellites using the predicted signal information; and d. the position solution being obtained using signals from fewer than four satellites at some or all antennas.