Enhanced GPS/INS Tracking and Vehicle Dynamics Monitoring System

There is a need to develop a system that will track the location and dynamics of ground vehicles for the purposes of determining their impact on the environment. We propose to use a combination of GPS and inertial sensors to determine the vehicle'slocation, accelerations, and rotations and capture this dynamics information. In addition to providing the user with dynamic information, the inertial data can be used to provide a navigation solution when GPS is unavailable due to occlusion of buildings,cliffs, or dense canopies. The use of micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) allows one to construct this system with direct sensing of the desired environmental impact sensors at a reasonable cost without sacrificing performance. This type of systemcan be used to enhance the data available for collection in existing commercial fleet tracking systems as well as provide tracking data when GPS is unavailable.