GPS/IMU Ultra-Tightly Coupled Integrity Monitoring

Global Positioning System (GPS) applications which involve safety-of-flight operations (e.g. precision and non-precision instrument landing) require integrity monitoring. Previous integrity monitoring techniques implemented took advantage of redundantobservations (e.g. Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring or RAIM) or off board resources such as wide area or local area augmentation. Recent advances have led to the development of ultra-tightly coupled GPS/inertial solutions that providesignificantly improved performance in the presence of signal interference. In this proposal, an ultra-tightly coupled (UTC) GPS/inertial (GI) integrity monitoring solution is proposed that enables robust detection, identification and rejection of failedGPS observations from the coupled GPS/inertial navigation solution.Under the Phase I effort, the UTC- GI Integrity Monitoring algorithm theory will be further developed and documented. The performance of the algorithm under simulated satellite failure conditions will be demonstrated using data collected from in-houseGPS/inertial test equipment. Under the Phase II effort, we propose to delver an Ultra-Tightly-Coupled GPS/Inertial integrated system that can be demonstrated to meet FAA's RNP integrity requirements and also provide robust navigation capability in thepresence of jamming.Applications exist for leveraging the improved integrity monitoring, A/J performance and high accuracy provided by the Ultra-Tightly-Coupled GPS/Inertial Integrity solution for both civil and military precision approach and landing systems, such as LAAS orJPALS.