Moblle Inertial Test System: A Dynamic Testbed for the EDGE Flight Tests

Theodore Herrera and Brian Taylor

Abstract:	The Mobile Inertial Test System (MITS) is a truck- mounted testbed used by engineers at Wright Laboratory Armament Directorate, Eglin Air Force Base, to conduct dynamic tests of developmental tactical grade navigation systems. MITS hosts aircraft avionics to provide a truth reference system for evaluating and characterizing navigation performance. Recently, MITS was used to support Aeronautical Systems Center technology demonstration programs by emulating the MIL-STD-1553 inertial GPS interface between an aircraft platform and a developmental GPS-aided inertial munition for pre-flight ground tests. These tests included functional verification of the MIL-STD-1553 interface, transfer of alignment of the inertial measurement unit, and fast acquisition aspects of the GPS receiver. This paper discusses the MITS test configuration and test procedures to conduct the pre-flight tests in accordance with the aircraft Operational Flight Program. The data presented are results from dynamic ground test support of a HIGH GEAR Joint Direct Attack Munition Product Improvement Program called the Exploitation of Differential GPS for Guidance Enhancement (EDGE) program. In this program, wide area differential corrections were applied to the GPS-inertial navigation system of the air-to-surface munition, The EDGE guidance unit consists of a Honeywell Integrated Flight Management Unit incorporating Honeywell’s HG1700 Ring Laser Gyro Inertial Measurement Unit and Interstate Electronics Corporation’s SEM-E GPS receiver cards. The widearea differential corrections are processed by SRI International’s 1000 mile baseline reference receiver network which used four Ashtech 12-channel receivers.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 8th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1995) September 12 - 15, 1995 Palm Springs, CA
Pages:	1703 - 1711
Cite this article:	Herrera, Theodore, Taylor, Brian, "Moblle Inertial Test System: A Dynamic Testbed for the EDGE Flight Tests," Proceedings of the 8th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1995), Palm Springs, CA, September 1995, pp. 1703-1711.
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