A Miniature and Low Cost Inertial-Based Navigation System for Highly Accurate Position and Attitude Estimation without Relying on the GPS

Impact Technologies, in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology, proposes to develop a low-cost, light-weight, low-power inertial navigation system for highly accurate vehicle position and attitude determination without relying on the GPS. The device is capable of use in many systems from unmanned autonomous vehicles such as UAV to anti-submarine sonobuoys. The proposed system implements a nonlinear filter-based three-dimensional position and attitude estimator featuring several novel algorithms for estimating and eliminating sensor drifting, bias and high vibrational effects. Particularly, an innovative algorithm is developed to identify the local gravitational position in real-time and use it to bound sensor errors. To capture the earth"s gravitational vector, a uniquely designed hardware configuration that combines a dual-arc accelerometer array with a three-axis rate-gyro has been developed and successfully demonstrated with prototyping hardware. The over-redundant accelerometer system is also utilized for position estimation so that measurements are filtered and fused to drastically reduce sensor drifting and bias effects. Preliminary software and hardware simulation studies have demonstrated promising results. While Phase I will focus on proof-of-concept feasibility demonstration, a hardware prototype will be fabricated, tested on a targeted UAV platform and delivered to the Navy in Phase II.