GPS/Reduced IMU with a Local Terrain Predictor in Land Vehicle Navigation. (12th October 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Debo; Petovello, Mark G.; Cannon, M. Elizabeth
• Other Names: Cross Paul Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of navigation and observation. Volume 2008(2008)
• Publication Date: 2008-10-12
• Subjects: Navigation -- Periodicals; Remote sensing -- Periodicals; Geographic information systems -- Periodicals; Global Positioning System -- Periodicals; Earth sciences -- Periodicals; Environmental monitoring -- Periodicals; Navigation; Télédétection; Systèmes d'information géographique; GPS; Sciences de la terre; Environnement -- Surveillance; Earth sciences; Environmental monitoring; Geographic information systems; Global Positioning System; Navigation; Remote sensing; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 629.045
• DOI: 10.1155/2008/813821
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-5990

Abstract

Abstract : In order to reduce the cost and volume of land vehicle navigation (LVN) systems, a "reduced" inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting of only one vertical gyro and two or three accelerometers is generally used and is often integrated with other sensors. Since there are no horizontal gyros in a reduced IMU, the pitch and roll cannot be calculated or observed directly from the inertial data, and the navigation performance is thus affected by local terrain variations. In this work, a reduced IMU is integrated with global positioning system (GPS) data and a novel local terrain predictor (LTP) algorithm. The latter is used primarily to help estimate the pitch and roll of the reduced IMU system and thus to improve the navigation performance. In this paper, two reduced IMU configurations and two grades of IMUs are investigated using field data. Test results show that the LTP is valid. Specifically, inclusion of the LTP provides more than an 80% horizontal velocity improvement relative to the case when the LTP is not used in a GPS/reduced IMU configuration.