An Integrated System for Land Navigation

J.C. McMillan

Abstract:	Perhaps the most stringent requirement for 1 and navigation is imposed by winter operations in the high arctic. The serious consequences of being lost or failing to find a supply dump in the arctic make reliability and accuracy vital necessities. A combination of circumstances conspire to also make the arctic a particularly difficult area in which to navigate by conventional means. Until GPS becomes fully operational, there will be no single system capable of continuously providing the necessary position and heading accuracy. Even then reliability considerations will dictate that a self-contained or autonomous backup be available, certainly for the military user. The Defence Research Establishment in Ottawa (DREO) has therefore developed a multi-sensor optimally integrated navigation system to satisfy the present operational requirements of the Canadian land forces, which are most severe in the arctic. This system, called PLANS (Primary Land Arctic Navigation System) was designed to be a highly reliable, high to moderately accurate, automatic navigation system for all weather off the road use. Although designed primarily to meet an arctic requirement, PLANS would of course be just as applicable for desert navigation, or for any application in which reliability and accuracy are a priority, or where simpler and less costly methods are ineffective.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1987 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 20 - 23, 1987 Anaheim, CA
Pages:	49 - 57
Cite this article:	McMillan, J.C., "An Integrated System for Land Navigation," Proceedings of the 1987 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, CA, January 1987, pp. 49-57.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In