Integrating Monolithic Ring Laser Gyros with Legacy Shipboard Navigation and Weapons Systems to Improve Inertial Navigation System Performance

William R. Woodward, Richard Webb, Donald J. Weber, Robert F. Weingaertner

Abstract:	Ring laser gyro technology represents a major improvement over older “iron gyro” technology. Ring laser gyro technology is available in different form factors. A monolithic ring laser gyro consists of three orthogonal laser chambers cut into a single cube. It is possible to fit monolithic ring laser gyros and their required support electronics into the physical area that an existing gyro or ring laser gyro might currently occupy. The monolithic ring laser gyros and support electronics can be configured to accept GPS position and velocity information and speed log information. Using advanced filtering technology, these sensor inputs can be combined to generate an extremely accurate position, forming the core of a high precision Inertial Navigation System (INS). Introducing additional monolithic ring laser gyros into the mix of sensors yields several advantages over a single Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) solution: • Improved accuracy • Improved overall system operational availability and reliability • Graceful performance degradation • Majority voting (detection and isolation of degraded or failed unit) UrsaNav and Kearfott Guidance & Navigation Corporation have teamed to develop the “Sea Navigator™” and “Ocean Navigator™”, essentially two versions of a multiple-sensor INS, the latter featuring multiple monolithic ring laser gyros. Both units feature Kearfott SEANAV INS units.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008) September 16 - 19, 2008 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	2485 - 2492
Cite this article:	Woodward, William R., Webb, Richard, Weber, Donald J., Weingaertner, Robert F., "Integrating Monolithic Ring Laser Gyros with Legacy Shipboard Navigation and Weapons Systems to Improve Inertial Navigation System Performance," Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008), Savannah, GA, September 2008, pp. 2485-2492.
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