DQI-NP application to the OutriderTM Tactical UnmannedAerial Vehicle (TUAV)

A wide variety of applications can benefit from integrated Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS) technology. However, in many situations, the end user has a preference for a specific GPS receiver. Additionally, in most cases, the user does not desire to expend the time and money necessary to perform a custom INS/GPS integration, but instead wants a low-cost off-the-shelf solution. To address these applications, Boeing has developed the Digital Quartz Inertial Measurement Unit (DQI IMU)-Navigation Processor (DQI-NP) product as an extension of its Miniature Integrated GPS/INS Tactical System (MIGITS^TM) family of integrated INS/GPS products. This paper describes the DQI-NP and its application to the Outrider^TM Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV). The DQI-NP, as currently integrated into the Outrider^TM TUAV, is coupled with a custom Trimble GPS receiver combined with major embedded firmware modifications by IntegriNautics. In conjunction with differential GPS and ground based pseudolites, the overall system is intended to provide autonomous landing capability to the Outrider TUAV. DQI-NP provides an available, low-cost, commercial-off-the-shelf/non-development item (COTS/NDI) solution to a variety of commercial and military applications, of which the Outrider ^TM TUAV is an excellent example     

Enhanced space integrated GPS/INS (SIGI)

Safe, reliable, and low cost space-based navigation is being provided with embedded INS/GPS systems such as the space integrated GPS/INS (SIGI). The SIGI is being used for various space vehicle applications such as launch vehicles, orbital vehicles, and re-entry vehicles. This paper describes current space vehicle navigation capabilities. The SIGI is being enhanced to provide additions to these existing capabilities with such items as higher processing and a commercial-off-the-shelf operating system. This will allow hosting of various software applications such as advanced navigation functions, flight control, guidance and vehicle management algorithms. The SIGI can host redundancy management functions by incorporating a cross channel data link card (CCDL) using a high speed firewire bus. The SIGI can then be used as a redundancy management platform which has application to current space vehicle avionics topologies incorporating distributed processing architectures     

GPS/INS integration on the Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM)

The Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) is a worldwide, all-weather, precision-strike weapon system deployed from carrier-based aircraft. In the primary mode of operation, target location and other mission data are generated from intelligence sources available on the aircraft carrier and loaded into the missile prior to aircraft takeoff. After missile launch, the SLAM inertial navigation system (INS) guides the missile along the planned trajectory. Updating the missile INS from the Global Positioning System (GPS) during flight provides precise midcourse navigation and enhances target acquisition by accurate, on-target pointing of the SLAM Maverick seeker. The GPS/INS avionics and software integration used for SLAM are described in detail, along with some of the design tradeoffs that led to the approach. The avionics configuration integrates the Harpoon midcourse guidance unit, which includes a strapdown inertial sensor package and digital processor, with a Rockwell-Collins single-channel, sequential GPS receiver processor unit (RPU), a derivative of the GPS phase-III user equipment. In addition to the GPS receiver elements the RPU contains the navigation processor, which executes the SLAM navigation, Kalman filter algorithms, and other guidance algorithms including seeker pointing. Flight-test results of the SLAM GPS-aided INS are also included     

A relative navigation system for formation flight

A relative navigation system based on both the Inertial Navigation System (INS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) is developed to support situational awareness during formation flight. The architecture of the system requires an INS/GPS integration across two aircraft via a data link. A fault-tolerant federated filter is used to estimate the relative INS errors based on relative GPS measurements and a range measurement obtained from the data link. The filter is constructed based on a reduced-order model of the relative INS error process. A method for analyzing the filter performance is presented. A case involving two helicopters in formation flight is studied under three different night trajectories to account for the effect of vehicle motion on the INS state transition matrix. The results of the covariance analysis are compared with actual night results over an instrumented test range.     

GPS/惯性组合方式讨论与导航精度分析

 本文讨论GPS/惯性组合两种方式的优缺点。并以GPS伪距和伪距率与惯导组合为例,按GPS测量误差的不同,以及使用差分机等情况,仿真计算了机载使用的组合导航性能,进行了详细的精度分析。结果表明,这种组合的导航精度比GPS和惯导各自的导航精度高。在采用差分GPS机与惯导组合后,位置误差将进一步减少,使组合导航具有开辟例如飞机进场着陆等新的使用领域的可能性。     

基于神经网络的航天器GPS/INS组合定姿系统

基于GPS和惯性技术的组合导航系统是近年来导航系统的研究热点和主要发展方向.目前基于卡尔曼滤波方法的算法在稳定性、计算量、算法鲁棒性以及系统可观测性等方面仍然存在问题.基于神经网络技术研究了一种新的GPS/INS组合定姿自适应卡尔曼滤波方法,理论分析表明,该方法不但对姿态信息具有较好的估计性能,而且对系统模型的精确性、噪声特性具备良好的鲁棒性.最后,利用模拟数据对所研究算法进行了分析计算,与传统的卡尔曼滤波方法进行了比较、分析,结果表明所设计组合算法在精度、稳定性以及鲁棒性等方面较传统卡尔曼方法具有良好的特性.     

GPS Aided Inertial Navigation

The Global Positioning System is an extremely accurate satellite-based navigation system which, after its completion in 1989, will provide users worldwide, 24 hour. all weather coverage. A joint research project among Boeing, Rockwell-Collins, and Northrop has been completed in which a GPS receiver was integrated with a low-cost strap-down inertial navigation system and a flight computer. A Kalman filter in the latter allows in-fight alignment and calibration of the INS. In addition, feedback from the INS to the GPS receiver improves the system's ability to reacquire satellite signals after outages. The resulting system combines the accuracy of GPS with the jamming immunity and autonomy of inertial navigation. System tests were conducted in which a Boeing owned T-33 jet aircraft was flown through known test pattern to align and calibrate the INS. Earlier tests, including tests against an airborne jammer, were conducted in a modified passenger bus.     

用于SAR运动补偿的DGPS/SINS组合系统研究

使用考虑位置误差相关项的伪距率观测模型 ,研究了用于合成孔径雷达运动补偿的差分 GPS/ SINS伪距率组合系统。结果表明 ,组合系统的长期位置精度能达到 1 m左右。 GPS数据更新率低于 INS,在 GPS测量时间间隔内 ,组合系统的性能仅由 INS决定。虽然 INS误差随时间积累 ,在 GPS数据更新率为 1 s的情况下 ,即使采用中等精度的惯性仪表 ,其相对位置精度为厘米级 (这里相对位置精度指组合系统在 GPS测量时间间隔内位置误差的变化范围)。     

Development of a low-cost integrated GPS/IMU system

This paper describes the development of a low-cost and small size integrated Global Positioning System (GPS)/inertial measurement unit (IMU). The developed strapdown Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) is capable of providing attitude and heading accuracy at ±0.2 and ±0.4 degrees, respectively. The prototype of low-cost integrated GPS/IMU can give positioning accuracy of 10 metres     

Italian low cost GNSS/INS system suitable for mobile mapping

The first studies for the mobile mapping and creation of a vehicle for this kind of research was carried out by Canadian Researchers in the 1980s. Since then, these vehicles have been widely employed in several applications (road cadastre maps, terrestrial photogrammetry, road sign recognition, etc.) for both commercial and research purposes throughout the world. Many GNSS/INS vehicles which can be equipped in different ways with one or more GPS, inertial sensors, and one or several cameras, have been realized. A characteristic shared by most of these devices concerns the high costs of the sensors, of the realization, and of the maintenance. For this reason, a GNSS/INS system, that is suitable for any vehicle, made up of low-cost devices (two GPS receivers, an INS, and a camera rigidly placed on a metallic bar), have been designed and built by our research group. Two tests run at different velocities have been carried out to evaluate the reliability of the system. After a presentation of the system, the differences that were witnessed during the application of these calibration methods are explained herein.     

Small UAV Automation Using MEMS

This paper presents a framework for the automation of a small UAV using a low cost sensor suite, MNAV, and an embedded computing platform, Stargate, which together provide a complete avionics package for aerial robotic applications. In order to provide a complete INS solution (i.e., attitude, velocity, position, and biases), an extended Kalman filter algorithm is developed and implemented in real-time. A devised control strategy utilizes multiple PID loops with a hierarchy enabling simple attitude stabilization to full waypoint navigation. The developed ground station unit, a laptop computer, communicates with the avionics package via 802.11b WiFi, displays the aircraft critical information, provides in-flight PID gain tunings, and uploads waypoints through a simple GUI. The system is installed in an off-the-shelf delta-wing R/C aircraft and demonstrates its performance for aerial robotic applications     

地磁辅助的无缝INS/GPS组合导航研究

INS/GPS组合导航已经成为当前无人机导航系统的主要实现形式,由于GPS信号容易受到干扰,在恶劣的电磁环境下信号易丢失,从而导致GPS卫星信号失锁而无法使用。地磁导航作为一种无源导航方法,其难以受到外界干扰且具有较强的自主性,从而为克服GPS在干扰情况下无法对INS误差实现持续无缝修正的不足提供了很好的途径。针对INS/GPS组合导航中GPS卫星信号失锁的情况,设计提出了使用地磁匹配导航进行辅助实现无人机无缝导航的实现方案,设计了基于地磁特征的地磁匹配算法和地磁匹配辅助的INS/GPS组合无缝自主导航算法,并通过仿真验证了采用地磁匹配辅助导航方法,可以在GPS无效的情况下,实现对INS导航误差的持续无缝修正,从而提高导航系统性能。     

Multi-sensor optimal data fusion for INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation system

INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation system represents the trend of next generation navigation systems with the high performance of independence, high precision and reliability. This paper presents a new multi-sensor data fusion methodology for INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems. This methodology combines local decentralized fusion with global optimal fusion to enhance the accuracy and reliability of integrated navigation systems. A decentralized estimation fusion method is established for individual integrations of GPS and SAR into INS to obtain the local optimal state estimations in a parallel manner. A global optimal estimation fusion theory is studied to fuse the local optimal estimations for generating the global optimal state estimation of INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems. The global data fusion features a method of variance upper finiteness and a method of variance upper bound to ensure that the global optimal state estimation can be achieved under a general condition. Experimental results demonstrate that INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems achieved by using the proposed methodology have a better performance than INS/GPS integrated systems.     

General aviation aircraft avionics: integration & system tests

The avionics of current-day aircraft is termed as modular integrated full glass cockpit. Unlike lots of dials and gauges, the pilot will interact with Multi-Function Displays (MYD). This means that the systems are coupled with multi-function displays, communication and navigation radios with control units, multi-mode interactive instruments for control and navigation, recording and fault management systems, airframes and health monitoring diagnostic capabilities. Pilot Vehicle Interface (PVI) is an important measure of good avionics and cockpit layout, which implies the optimization of man-machine interface, enhancement of the economy, and safety of flight operations. This presents the avionics architecture of a 14-seat Light Transport Aircraft (LTA) for general aviation, which has multi-role commuter capabilities. LTA is a twin turbo-prop, multi-role aircraft, with air taxi and commuter services as its primary roles. The avionics is built on the digital communication mode for both command and control with current requirements of TCAS, digital Autopilot, and AMLCD multi-purpose glass displays. The LTA Avionics suite is grouped into six major groups based on functionality: Display System, Communication System, Navigation System, Recording System, Radar System, and Engine instruments and other cockpit displays. This paper also covers details about the extensive tests carried out to prove the avionics design in terms of functionality, inter-operability, interference, and compatibility. Various practical integration and flight-test issues, methodologies, and details of the scenarios is presented herein.     

对GPS／INS制导巡航导弹GPS干扰方法的探讨

目前GPS/INS制导已成为精确制导武器的核心。本文根据GPS信号特点及GPS/INS制导机理,通过对压制干扰和欺骗干扰技术及其对GPS接收机影响的分析,着重探讨对GPS/INS制导巡航导弹GPS干扰的方法。若要提高对GPS/INS制导巡航导弹实施远距离干扰的效果,而又使干扰机功率不是很大,则需建立多层次、分布式、立体式、小功率GPS干扰体系。     

基于联邦滤波结构的INS／GPS组合导航系统数据融合研究

为了研究平台式惯导INS（interial navigation system）和全球定位系统GPS（globe position system）组合导航联邦滤波器的实现,使用速度局部滤波器和位置局部滤波器,分别对INS／GPS组合导航系统的向东速度、向北速度,以及对经度和纬度进行卡尔曼滤波,然后将位置数据和速度数据输入主滤波进行数据融合。以无人机的向东匀速水平飞行为背景,运用联邦卡尔曼滤波器算法,使用matelab进行仿真分析。可以证明联邦滤波器算法简单,易于实现,并且可以提高导航系统精度．实际应用中此方法可行。     

GPS／INS组合导航系统松、紧耦合性能比较

对GPS/INS组合导航系统的紧耦合算法进行了理论推导。详细分析了当INS元器件性能变差时,GPS/INS组合导航系统在不同耦合模式下的定位精度变化规律,得出采用紧耦合模式的组合导航系统比一般的松耦合方式能获得更好的定位精度;并通过仿真验证了该结论的正确。     

Design and Development of a Real-Time DSP and FPGA-Based Integrated GPS-INS System for Compact and Low Power Applications

Emphasis of the present work is on an elegant real-time solution for GPS/INS integration. Micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) based inertial sensors are light but not accurate enough for inertial navigation system (INS) applications. An integrated INS/GPS system provides better accuracy compared with either INS or GPS, used individually. This paper describes an improved design and fabrication of a loosely coupled INS-GPS integrated system. The systems currently available use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and are, therefore, not optimized for compact, single supply, and low power requirements. In the proposed system, a digital signal processor (DSP) is used for inertial navigation solution and Kalman filter computations. A field programmable gate array (FPGA) is used for creating an efficient interface of the GPS with the DSP. Direct serial interface of the GPS involve tedious processing overhead on the navigation processor. Therefore, a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) and dual port random axis memory (DPRAM) are created on the FPGA itself. This also reduces the total chip count, resulting in a compact system. The system is designed to give real time processed navigation solutions with an update rate of 100 Hz. All the details of this work are presented.     

基于RTS滤波的GPS+BDS非差非组合PPP/INS紧组合模型

GPS高精度定位技术在动态复杂环境中,其定位精度、可靠性和连续性因卫星信号频繁失锁而变差。为此,提出了采用基于RTS滤波(Rauch-Tung-Striebel Filter)的GPS+BDS非差非组合PPP(Precise Point Positioning)与INS(Inertial Navigation System)紧组合模型的策略来克服GPS在动态定位中的弱点。其中,采用GPS+BDS双系统观测数据,可提高PPP解算中的可用卫星数,改善星站间定位几何强度和提高PPP收敛速度;采用PPP/INS紧组合,利用INS的自主定位特性和短期高精度特性,可有效改善复杂环境下的定位精度和连续性;采用RTS滤波,可进一步提高PPP/INS紧组合性能。首先推导了GPS+BDS非差非组合函数模型、PPP/INS紧组合函数模型和RTS滤波函数模型,然后利用一组车载动态数据,对动态GPS PPP、GPS+BDS PPP、GPS/INS紧组合、GPS+BDS PPP/INS紧组合和基于RTS的GPS+BDS PPP/IMU紧组合的定位、测速和定姿性能进行分析。实验结果表明,该方案可有效提高定位(58%～72%)、测速(74%～82%)和定姿(4%～23%)精度,特别是对卫星失锁期间的定位性能改善尤为明显。