ALIGNMENT TRANSFER FOR HELICOPTER LAUNCHED INERTIALLY GUIDED MISSILES

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM IS TO DESIGN AN IN-FLIGHT TRANSFER ALIGNMENT SCHEME FOR THE INERTIAL MEASUREMENT UNIT (IMU) OF A HELICOPTER-LAUNCHED INERTIALLY GUIDED MISSILE. THE MISSILE, MOUNTED ON A HELICOPTER WING, IS SUBJECTED TO LARGE AMPLITUDE VIBRATIONS. CURRENT TRANSFER ALIGNMENT SCHEMES, DESIGNED FOR AIRPLANES OR GROUND APPLICATIONS, DO NOT ESTIMATE THE VIBRATION COMPONENT OF THE IMU MOTION. CONSEQUENTLY, THESE CURRENT SCHEMES DO NOT PROVIDE ESTIMATES OF INSTANTANEOUS MISSILE POSITION, AND THEREFORE, MAY NOT HAVE THE ALIGNMENT ACCURACY REQUIRED FOR A HELICOPTER-LAUNCHED INERTIALLY GUIDED MISSILE. THE INNOVATIVE ALIGNMENT SCHEME PROPOSED HEREIN EXPLICITY MODELS THE MISSILE VIBRATION MODES WITHIN THE TRANSFER ALIGNMENT KALMAN FILTER. MODELING WILL BE CONDUCTED BY ANALYZING AVAILABLE MISSILE VIBRATION DATA. CANDIDATE ALIGNMENT FORMULATIONS INVOLVING ATTITUDE, VELOCITY, AND POSITION MATCH BETWEEN THE MISSILE IMU AND THE CARRIER HELICOPTER INERTIAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM (INS) WILL BE EVALUATED AND COMPARED THROUGH COMPUTER SIMULATION. AN INNOVATIVE OPTICAL ALIGNMENT SCHEME WILL ALSO BE EXAMINED TO FURTHER IMPROVE THE ALIGNMENT PROCESS FOLLOWING THE INITIAL TRANSFER ALIGNMENT.