Cost-Effective, High-Accuracy Inertial Navigation

A. Matthews, H. Welter

Abstract:	In spite of the trend towards Global Positioning System (GPS)/ Inertial Navigation System Hybrids, certain applications demand a pure inertial solution to give high-accuracy navigation performance. Modern day Inertial Navigation Systems are dominated by the Ring Laser Gyro technology; however, these systems lie normally in the 1 nautical mile per hour class. To obtain a factor of improvement demands either: • Development of higher accuracy (and hence more expensive) inertial sensors; both gyro and accelerometer • Alternative mechanization of existing inertial sensors. An alternative mechanization which is ideally suited for today's ring laser gyros is one that can be borrowed from the past. This technique is the rate bias technique which solves many of the problems associated with dithered gyros, and in addition attenuates the effects of many of the inertial sensors (both gyro and accelerometer) errors. This paper discusses the design rationale and system design, which together with flight test results demonstrate that a rate bias ring laser gyro Inertial Navigation System provides a cost effective solution to the pure high-accuracy Inertial Navigation System requirement.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1989 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 23 - 26, 1989 San Mateo, CA
Pages:	243 - 249
Cite this article:	Matthews, A., Welter, H., "Cost-Effective, High-Accuracy Inertial Navigation," Proceedings of the 1989 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Mateo, CA, January 1989, pp. 243-249.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In