An All-purpose Rapid Transfer Alignment Algorithm Set

Paul D. Groves and Jonathan C. Haddock

Abstract:	Transfer alignment is the process of aligning and calibrating a missile INS using data from the host aircraft INS. An all-purpose ‚rapid™ transfer alignment algorithm set has been developed in-house by DERA. It may be configured to suit differing grades of INS, alignment duration, processing capacity and flexure and vibration environments. The algorithm set has been validated by simulation in a flexure environment for the alignment of missile INS with gyro drift down to 100 °/hour. It has also been successfully flight tested in real-time onboard a Tornado aircraft. The work has fulfilled two main aims. Firstly, it has provided the UK Ministry of Defence with an independent validation of the benefits of using ‚rapid™ transfer alignment techniques to align and calibrate missile INS. Secondly, a number of enhancements to established transfer alignment techniques have been investigated. These include estimation of additional inertial instrument errors, adaptive measurement noise covariance modelling and dynamic relative orientation modelling. Simulations have shown that these enhancements improve transfer alignment performance where there is sufficient processing power to implement them.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2001 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2001 Westin Long Beach Hotel Long Beach, CA
Pages:	160 - 171
Cite this article:	Groves, Paul D., Haddock, Jonathan C., "An All-purpose Rapid Transfer Alignment Algorithm Set," Proceedings of the 2001 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Long Beach, CA, January 2001, pp. 160-171.
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