Data Fusion for Geophysical Aided Navigation Technologies

Many moving platforms, including SSBNs and SSGNs, rely on inertial navigation systems for position and velocity information, either as the primary navigation system or as a backup system. Because of drifts in critical hardware components, INS systems must be periodically reset using occasional position fixes from a sensor, or sensors, external to the INS. There are numerous candidates for the reset mechanism, including GPS, celestial, terrain, bathymetric, gravimetric, and magnetic fixes. The overall objective of the proposed Phase I effort is to develop a particle filter based mechanization for fusing geophysical data (bathymetric, gravitational and magnetic) with platform INS data in order to provide a cost-effective high-accuracy navigation solution over extended, perhaps indefinite, endurance intervals. This will provide the basis to develop the Phase II demonstration system.