Differential GPS/inertial navigation approach/landing flight testresults

In November 1990, a differential GPS/inertial flight test was conducted to acquire a system performance database and demonstrate automatic landing using an integrated differential GPS/INS with barometric and radar altimeters. Flight test results obtained from postflight data analysis are presented. These results include characteristics of DGPS/inertial error, using a laser tracker as a reference. In addition, data are provided on the magnitude of the differential correlations and vertical channel performance with and without radar altimeter augmentation. Flight test results show one sigma DGPS/inertial horizontal errors of 9 ft and one sigma DGPS inertial vertical errors of 15 ft. Without selective availability effects, the differential corrections are less than 10 ft and are dominated by receiver unique errors over the time period of an approach. Therefore, the one sigma performance of the autonomous GPS (8-ft horizontal and 20-ft vertical) is very similar to the DGPS/inertial performance. Postprocessed results also demonstrate significant improvements in vertical channel performance when GPS/inertial is aided with radar altimeter along with a low-resolution terrain map     

基于气压高度辅助的机载自主完好性监测算法

卫星接收机自主完好性监测是指根据用户接收机的多余观测值监测用户定位结果的完好性,其目的是在导航过程中检测出发生故障的卫星,并保障导航定位精度。针对卫星接收机自主完好性监测算法可用性不足的问题,结合机载实际导航系统配置,提出了一种基于气压高度表辅助的机载自主完好性监测算法。综合利用卫星导航系统及气压高度表观测信息,建立联合系统的观测模型,推导了基于多解分离的完好性监测及保护级别计算方法。仿真结果表明,相比于传统的接收机自主完好性监测算法,该算法在可见星为5颗时仍能识别故障卫星。该算法具有更好的故障检测能力及可用性,能有效提高卫星导航系统的完好性监测性能,从而保证卫星导航系统的精度和可靠性。     

The Mercury Laser Altimeter Instrument for the MESSENGER Mission

The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) is one of the payload science instruments on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, which launched on August 3, 2004. The altimeter will measure the round-trip time of flight of transmitted laser pulses reflected from the surface of the planet that, in combination with the spacecraft orbit position and pointing data, gives a high-precision measurement of surface topography referenced to Mercury’s center of mass. MLA will sample the planet’s surface to within a 1-m range error when the line-of-sight range to Mercury is less than 1,200 km under spacecraft nadir pointing or the slant range is less than 800 km. The altimeter measurements will be used to determine the planet’s forced physical librations by tracking the motion of large-scale topographic features as a function of time. MLA’s laser pulse energy monitor and the echo pulse energy estimate will provide an active measurement of the surface reflectivity at 1,064 nm. This paper describes the instrument design, prelaunch testing, calibration, and results of postlaunch testing.     

Post Mixer Spectra of Periodic FM Altimeters with Area Target Returns

A periodic FM altimeter is postulated and its illuminated area target modeled as an array of elemental scatterers. A computational form is then developed expressing the desired post mixer spectrum as a sum of spectral components corresponding to the individual scatterer returns. Application of the model is made to the case of a triangular linear sweep FM altimeter and samples of the calculated post mixer spectrum presented, illustrating the effects of antenna beam geometry, target surface properties, and modulation parameters.     

Improving GPS-Based Landing System Performance using an Empirical Barometric Altimeter Confidence Bound

This paper develops an empirical confidence bound for barometric altimeter altitude errors and shows how this bound may improve the performance of GPS-based approach and landing systems. This empirical bound is developed using historical meteorological data collected at a set of geographically diverse locations over a thirty year period. The confidence bound developed is shown to provide a Gaussian overbound on altimeter altitude errors in standard atmospheric conditions between a 10-5 and 10-6 confidence level. This confidence bound is integrated into the standard methodology for analyzing the performance of GPS-based landing systems and the results of a performance trade study using the confidence bound are presented. The results show that incorporating the empirical barometric altimeter confidence bound provides an increase in the coterminous United States (CONUS) service volume for lateral precision with vertical guidance (LPV) type approaches. While this increase is approximately 2% for an L1 single-frequency GPS user, it jumps to roughly 40% for an L5 single-frequency user.     

Receiver characteristics of laser altimeters with avalanchephotodiodes

The receiver characteristics of a laser altimeter system containing an avalanche photodiode photodetector are analyzed using the Gaussian approximation, the saddlepoint approximation, and a nearly exact analysis. The last two methods are shown to yield very similar results except when the background noise is extremely low and the probability of false alarm is high. However, the Gaussian approximation method is shown to cause significant errors even under relatively high levels of background noise and received signal energy     

气压高度表辅助下GPS接收机自备完善性监测可用性研究

 对我国范围内飞机非精密进场及终端航行时全球定位导航系统（ＧＰＳ）接收机自备完善性监测（ＲＡＩＭ）的可用性进行了研究，分析了气压高度表辅助和故障偏置大小对ＧＰＳＲＡＩＭ可用性的影响。结果表明：气压高度表与ＧＰＳ组合是提高ＲＡＩＭ可用性的有效措施；过大或过小的偏置误差将产生较小的漏警概率，而中等大小的故障偏置则产生较大的漏警概率     

通用型雷达高度计回波模型及其应用

 雷达高度计回波模型是设计、检验高度计跟踪算法的基础, 是高度计设计的关键性环节。为改进原BROWN 模型局限性, 从一般情况出发, 建立了一面向脉宽限制式雷达高度计的通用型回波模型并介绍了其相关的应用。该模型无论是准确度还是应用范围都比BROWN 模型优越得多, 可以满足不同环境条件、工作方式的要求, 对于高度计跟踪算法的设计、分析与检验具有重要意义。     

基于双频微片激光器回馈效应的多普勒测速技术研究

多普勒测速是激光回馈研究领域中最主要和最活跃的分支之一。本文介绍了激光回馈多普勒测速的基本原理,回顾了该领域的研究进展。重点介绍了基于正交偏振双频激光器回馈效应的多普勒测速方法,并在此基础上设计了一种基于双频Nd：YAG微片激光器的回馈多普勒测速方案,分析了其装置原理和影响因素,讨论了其可行性。     

Statistical Analysis of Velocity Measuring Systems Employing the Photon Correlation Technique

Velocities of fluid flows and solid objects can be measured by performing photon count correlations on laser light scattered from the measuring region, the most common optical configuration being the laser Doppler system. A statistical analysis for the counting process is presented for both the constant velocity case and for turbulent fluid flows with formulations for specific laser Doppler configurations. For turbulent flow, relationships are derived for the shape of the count correlation in terms of the mean velocity and rms turbulent intensity, taking into account the shape of the turbulence correlation curve. Experimental results recorded for both a constant velocity solid object and for an unseeded turbulent air flow in a wind tunnel are presented, and, in the latter case, comparisons are made with hot-wire measurements.     

Radar: The Cassini Titan Radar Mapper

The Cassini RADAR instrument is a multimode 13.8 GHz multiple-beam sensor that can operate as a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imager, altimeter, scatterometer, and radiometer. The principal objective of the RADAR is to map the surface of Titan. This will be done in the imaging, scatterometer, and radiometer modes. The RADAR altimeter data will provide information on relative elevations in selected areas. Surfaces of the Saturn’s icy satellites will be explored utilizing the RADAR radiometer and scatterometer modes. Saturn’s atmosphere and rings will be probed in the radiometer mode only. The instrument is a joint development by JPL/NASA and ASI. The RADAR design features significant autonomy and data compression capabilities. It is expected that the instrument will detect surfaces with backscatter coefficient as low as −40 dB.RADAR Team LeaderThis revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Soldier Identification System utilizing low probability ofintercept (LPI) techniques

This paper documents the design of a laser/radio frequency (RF) Soldier Identification (ID) System developed by Dynetics, Inc., Harris, Corp., and the US Army Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM). The Soldier ID system includes an Interrogation Unit with a programmable activation code. The Interrogation Unit consists of a directive, eye-safe laser and a spread-spectrum RF transceiver. This allows for a low probability of intercept (LPI) interrogation, which is of interest during covert operations. A Responder Unit is worn, for example, by a soldier and transmits an LPI spread-spectrum RF response, only after receiving the proper interrogation codes. The basic subsystems for the identification system are a Laser Interrogation Unit, an RF Responder Unit, and an electronic Programming Unit. The operating principles for the subsystem are reviewed, and the design issues are discussed. In addition to the preliminary design performed under Phase I of the program, a breadboard system was developed to validate the proof-of-principle concept. Hardware implementation is reviewed and test results are presented. The brassboard development and engineering plans are also presented     

Altitude Damping of Space-Stable Inertial Navigation Systems

In order to stabilize the altitude calculation in an inertial navigation system, an altimeter is commonly used. In a conventional local-level mechanization, this is generally accomplished by correcting the vertical channel integrators with the difference between the inertial system and altimeter indication of vertical position. However, in a space-stable system the procedure is not as clear since a vertical channel is not physically present. Three altitude damping mechanizations for a space-stable inertial navigation system are proposed. The equivalent local-level mechanizations are then found by comparing error propagation equations in a common coordinate frame.     

三维激光成像系统的点云模型真彩色处理方法

三维激光成像系统获得的点云数据精度高并且保有高精度的高程信息,然而特征信息不明显,没有保留全部的点和点的拓扑关系,无法直接判读地面物体;影像数据空间分辨率和精度低,并且缺少高程信息,然而其影像的特征连续,光谱信息丰富.因此,进行点云数据与影像数据融合方法的研究是目前三维激光成像系统研制的前沿性课题.针对点云数据与影像数据融合方法的研究,提出了一种三维激光成像系统点云模型真彩色处理的方法.实验结果显示,采用所提出的方法,不仅能够获得被扫描物体的位置信息和大小信息,而且能够得到被扫描物体的表面纹理细节信息.     

A Functionally Redundant Altimeter

A scheme to provide redundant sensor data in an automatic control system using the principle of functional redundancy is described. Normally there are three redundant radar altimeters used in the terminal phase of automatic landing of jet transport airplanes. This scheme replaces one of these altimeters with a data processing scheme based on a Kalman filter. The filter is driven by altitude rate and acceleration signals from the air data computer and vertical accelerometer. A special initialization technique employs the two altimeter signals. The feasibility of this scheme is indicated by tests in which data obtained from these several sensors during flight tests are used to drive the functionally redundant altimeter.     

Study on Energy Law of Similitude for Laser Propulsion in Repetitively-pulsed Mode

Energy law of similitude for laser propulsion refers to the law that there is an optimum nozzle configuration for the largest value of impulse coupling coefficient at certain incident laser energy. A dimensionless factor combined with incident laser energy, nozzle configuration parameters and working gas parameters is introduced. Energy law of similitude is established by means of theoretical analysis, experimental study and numerical simulation of radiation gas-dynamics. The qualitative results obtained from theoretical analysis are verified by experimental and numerical results. Physical meaning and engineering application of dimensionless factor and energy law of similitude are analyzed. Results indicate that

impulse coupling coefficient has a maximum value with dimensionless factor of about 0.4;

impulse coupling coefficient is independent of incident laser energy when dimensionless factor is constant. Conclusions and recognitions acquired in this article can not only present optimum nozzle configurations for the present laser energy level, but also provide a good guide for the optimum nozzle configuration design once the laser energy is amplified to a high level.     

Reentry Vehicle Radar Altimeter Antenna Patterns

An analytical technique is proposed for investigating the effect of antenna pattern shape on reentry vehicle radar altimeter performance. Initially, a method is presented that computes the average performance under all roll positions. This method is then extended to allow performance to be determined at each roll position. Some numerical results are included that show roll effects for a typical antenna pattern.     

利用红外技术进行层板冷却特性实验研究

为了研究层板冷却特性,应用远红外热像测温技术,对一个真实尺寸的层板结构进行了实验.层板的气膜孔、绕流柱及冲击孔直径分别为0.,0.8,0.8 mm,内腔高及总板厚分别为0.8,2.6 mm,孔柱数比为1:4:1.为了准确测量表面温度,采用了高精度热电偶校正法,建立修正关系;为了描述层板综合冷却效率,采用热像数字信号运算法,直接进行数据处理.实验在高温亚声速风洞中进行,实验结果展示了冷却介质注射量对层板冷却特性的影响,证明远红外热像技术用来研究层板冷却特性是一种有效的方法.      

Reduced minimum configuration fiber optic gyro for land navigationapplications

Further cost reduction of the fiber optic gyroscope is necessary to meet the economic requirements of land navigation systems. Previous concentration was on the reduction of the number of splices and component improvements in the open-loop minimum configuration. Now non-essential components and splices are eliminated. The source-detector coupler is not part of the Sagnac interferometer, and serves solely to direct light from the interferometer into the output photodetector. Many commercial laser diodes incorporate a back-facet photodetector to monitor laser intensity. The signal returned from the Sagnac traverses the laser, and can be detected at this photodetector. The gyro signal can be distinguished from the laser signal by the bias modulation applied in the interferometer. Configuring a gyro in this manner eliminates a directional coupler and the separate photodetector, as well as up to two fiber splices in an all-fiber gyroscope. A production, open-loop fiber optic gyroscope has been modified to demonstrate this principle. The gyroscope exhibits performance comparable to the conventional minimum configuration