A systematic analysis of the observability of an inertial navigation system (INS) in ground alignment with Bar-Itzhack and Berman's error model is presented. It is shown that the unobservable states are separately contained in two decoupled subspaces. The constraints on the selection of unobservable states are discussed. An estimation algorithm which is derived fully from the horizontal velocity outputs for computing the misalignment angles is provided. It reveals that the azimuth error can be entirely estimated from the estimates of leveling error and leveling error rate, without using gyro output signals explicitly. >

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Error estimation of INS ground alignment through observability analysis

A brief review of the theory of strapdown inertial navigation is presented in which the attitude of the sensor box with respect to inertial space is represented by the four-parameter quaternion vector. . A 4X4 matrix R is defined which aids in relating quaternions to direction cosines and facilitates interpretation of the equations for error propagation, which are also derived. In the interpretation, it is shown that the error in the quaternion vector causes aor-(correctable) scale factor error and an equivalent tilt vector error that propagates the same way as the platform tilt vector in a gimbaled system.

Analysis Strapdown Navigation Using Quaternions

This work presents a general nonlinear psi-angle approach that does not require coarse alignment. In this psi-angle model, the three misalignment angles are assumed all large. Three states are used to describe three psi-angles rather than the four used in previous works. The approach is identical to the standard small error methods when the process errors diminish to small angles. The position and velocity error models are also presented. Standard extended Kalman filter techniques are used to solve the nonlinear data fusion problem. Experimental results of in-flight inertial navigation systems (INS) alignment and calibration are presented considering total uncertainty in azimuth orientation using a low cost inertial measurement unit aided with a differential global positioning system.

Development of a nonlinear psi-angle model for large misalignment errors and its application in INS alignment and calibration

The relationship between quaternion errors and tilt angles from true navigation frame to analytic platform frame is newly derived for strapdown inertial navigation system (SDINS). Using the relationship it is shown that the quaternion error model for attitude and velocity is equivalent to the conventional perturbation error model. Based upon the equivalency, the quaternion errors during a multiposition alignment are determined and analyzed. Furthermore, it is shown that the heading rotation of 180 deg achieves the minimal quaternion error for 2-position ground alignment.

Strapdown INS error model for multiposition alignment

The psi-angle model and the equivalent tilt (ET) model have been widely used for in-flight alignment (IFA) to align and to calibrate a strapdown inertial navigation system (SDINS) on a moving base. However, these models are not effective for a system with large attitude errors because the neglected error terms in the models degrade the performance of a designed filter. In this paper, with an odometer as an external aid, a velocity-aided SDINS is designed for IFA. Equivalent error models applicable to IFA with large attitude errors are derived in terms of rotation vector error and additive and multiplicative quaternion errors. It is found that error models in terms of additive quaternion error (AQE) become linear. Thus the proposed error models reduce unmodeled error terms for a linear filter. From a number of van tests, it is shown that the proposed error models effectively improve the performance of IFA.

Comparison of SDINS in-flight alignment using equivalent error models

A detailed development is presented of the psi-angle vector differential equation as applied to the error analysis of strapdown inertial navigation systems. The coordinate systems involved and the psi misalignment vector are clearly defined. It is proven that apart from a sign change the psi-angle differential equation in the error analysis of strapdown inertial navigation systems is identical to the one used in conventional gimbaled inertial navigation systems.

Abraham Weinred

Papers

The Psi-Angle Error Equation in Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems