Inertial navigation system

About: Inertial navigation system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14582 publications have been published within this topic receiving 190618 citations. The topic is also known as: intertial guidance system & inertial reference platform.

The role of dead reckoning and inertial sensors in future general aviation navigation

Abstract: Possible configurations for a general aviation autonomous navigation system are studied. Doubtless, an advanced GPS receiver is a "must have" system component. GPS has had some outages due to unintentional interference or even intentional jamming and aircraft should be able to navigate through such an event. Natural candidates for GPS backup are inertial sensors, magnetic compass, and air-speed sensors. All these sensors can be calibrated during GPS availability. Moreover, for dead reckoning systems, wind velocity can be estimated as well. This paper presents an original statistical model for wind variations that matches actual data very well. Using this model and a parametric family of inertial measurement sensors, horizontal position errors during a GPS outage are compared for a variety of configurations: a dead reckoning system, stand alone inertial sensors and inertial sensors integrated with the dead reckoning system.

Enhancement of the inertial navigation system for the Morpheus autonomous underwater vehicles

Abstract: This paper presents the design and development of an enhanced inertial navigation system that is to be integrated into the Morpheus autonomous underwater vehicle at Florida Atlantic University. The inertial measurement unit is based on the off-the-shelf Honeywell HG1700-AG25 3-axis ring-laser gyros and three-axis accelerometers and is aided with ground speed measurements obtained using an RDI Doppler-velocity-log sonar. An extended Kalman filter has been developed, which fuses together asynchronously the inertial and Doppler data, as well as the differential Global Positioning System positional fixes whenever they are available. A complementary filter was implemented to provide a much smoother and stable attitude estimate. Thus far, preliminary study has been made on characterizing the inertial navigation system-based navigation system performance, and the corresponding results and analyzes are provided.

Apparatus and method for an aircraft navigation system having improved mission management and survivability capabilities

Abstract: An aircraft navigation system is disclosed for use in missions involving unfamiliar terrain and/or terrain having hostile forces. The navigation system includes an inertial navigation system, a map of the terrain with elevational information stored in a digitized format as function of location, a typical energy managed or narrow (radar or laser) beam altimeter, a display system, and a central processing unit for processing data according to preselected programs. The data processing system includes an operational mode (software program) for relating the continuing sequence of altimeter readings with the changing aircraft position on the digitized map. In this manner, the true position of the aircraft can be determined with respect to the digitized map and can be displayed on a plan view of the map. When the correct position of the aircraft with respect to the digitized map is known, a display of the map and the aircraft can provide presentations useful to the navigation of the aircraft, e.g., by displaying surface features that can provide potential danger for the aircraft. The correct position of the aircraft with respect to the digitized map can permit the aircraft to engage in terrain following procedures using only the relatively difficult to detect altitude range finding apparatus as a source of emitted electromagnetic radiation. The navigation system, in conjunction with information regarding hostile antiaircraft facilities, can provide a display permitting an operator to determine a reduced risk flight path.

Hybridizing matter-wave and classical accelerometers

Abstract: We demonstrate a hybrid accelerometer that benefits from the advantages of both conventional and atomic sensors in terms of bandwidth (DC to 430 Hz) and long term stability. First, the use of a real time correction of the atom interferometer phase by the signal from the classical accelerometer enables to run it at best performances without any isolation platform. Second, a servo-lock of the DC component of the conventional sensor output signal by the atomic one realizes a hybrid sensor. This method paves the way for applications in geophysics and in inertial navigation as it overcomes the main limitation of atomic accelerometers, namely the dead times between consecutive measurements.