An Improved Low-cost GPS/INS Integrated System Based on Embedded DSP Platform

Jieying Zhang, Stefan Knedlik, Otmar Loffeld

Abstract:	Due to the complementary characteristics of navigation with GPS derived measurements and with inertial measurements, the integration of GPS and INS can provide improved navigation solutions. The rapid development of micro-electric-mechanical-system (MEMS) technology yields sensors which are compact and low-cost and provide a sufficient performance. This, consequently, provides more opportunities for extensive embedded applications such as, vehicle tracking, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), pedestrian navigation, cell phone applications etc. In this paper a new DSP based low-cost integrated system architecture with an improved synchronization mechanism is proposed, which can be applied to a variety of real-time applications. The prototype is composed of one low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU), one commercial GPS receiver, one digital signal processing (DSP) platform and one asynchronous communications element (ACE) for interfacing the GPS receiver and the IMU with the DSP platform. The improved synchronization mechanism is realized by taking advantage of the special feature of the IMU as well as the use of Enhanced Direct Memory Access (EDMA) technology of the floating-point DSP. The structure and system operation flow of the designed embedded GPS/INS integrated system are explicitly elaborated in this paper. The synchronization of the data from GPS receiver and IMU, can essentially influence the navigation performance. The timing relationships between the trigger signals of the chosen GPS receiver and the IMU, as well as the measurements from both sides are analyzed in detail to address possible concerns in the
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2009 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 26 - 28, 2009 Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel Anaheim, CA
Pages:	744 - 752
Cite this article:	Zhang, Jieying, Knedlik, Stefan, Loffeld, Otmar, "An Improved Low-cost GPS/INS Integrated System Based on Embedded DSP Platform," Proceedings of the 2009 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, CA, January 2009, pp. 744-752.
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