Operational Results of a Closely Coupled Integrated Vehicle Heading System

R. Harvey, M.E. Cannon

Abstract:	This paper describes in detail an integrated vehicle azimuth and pitch determination system consisting of two carrier phase-based GPS receivers, an Andrew fiber-optic gyro (FOG), and a Precision Navigation Inc. TCM2 combined electronic compass and tiltmeter. A fusion reset federated filter algorithm [1] was used to combine the measurements from the various sensors in the post-mission. The non-GPS sensors were used to provide external information regarding the orientation of the vehicle to reduce the carrier phase integer ambiguity search space and hence the number of potential ambiguity sets that had to be tested. This was shown to drastically reduce the time required for ambiguity resolution. The integrated filter with full GPS coverage is shown to be at least as precise as the GPS-only reference azimuth and pitch. The difference between these two systems was less than one degree rms. After losing GPS coverage, the system was able to maintain a solution for at least 15 minutes to about one degree rms. The limiting factor in determining the full capability of the system at the current time is shown to be the reference system.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 10th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1997) September 16 - 19, 1997 Kansas City, MO
Pages:	279 - 288
Cite this article:	Harvey, R., Cannon, M.E., "Operational Results of a Closely Coupled Integrated Vehicle Heading System," Proceedings of the 10th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1997), Kansas City, MO, September 1997, pp. 279-288.
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