Using Converted Linear Measurements Taken by a Human Operator for INS Aiding

Turner J. Montgomery, Meir Pachter

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	A method for pilot-assisted Inertial Navigation System (INS) aiding is explored in which the pilot detects and tracks a ground feature of unknown position during a short measurement epoch using an Electro-Optical (E/O) sensor. One then refers to Visual-INS. In contrast to current research trends, a human operator is entrusted with tracking the ground feature. This yields a record of bearing measurements of the unknown ground feature taken over time. A non-conventional measurement linearization technique is applied to generate “converted” measurements of the feature position from the successive bearing measurements and the INS estimated aircraft position. A linear regression algorithm is then applied to the converted measurements providing an estimate of the INS horizontal velocity error and horizontal accelerometer biases. At the completion of the measurement epoch, the INS solution is corrected by subtracting out the estimated errors. Aiding the INS in this manner provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of the INS-provided aircraft navigation state estimates when compared to those of a free/unaided INS. A number of scenario are simulated including with and without a constrained flight path, with single vs. multiple ground feature tracking sessions, and with a navigation vs. tactical grade INS. Applications for this E/O sensor enabled autonomous navigation method include navigation in Global Positioning System (GPS) denied environments and/or when RF emitting/receiving sensors are undesirable.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 29th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2016) September 12 - 16, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon
Pages:	1153 - 1162
Cite this article:	Montgomery, Turner J., Pachter, Meir, "Using Converted Linear Measurements Taken by a Human Operator for INS Aiding," Proceedings of the 29th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2016), Portland, Oregon, September 2016, pp. 1153-1162. https://doi.org/10.33012/2016.14758
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