Inertial navigation system

An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation

device that uses a computer, motion sensors
(accelerometers) and rotation sensors (gyroscopes) to
continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position,
the orientation, and the velocity (direction and speed of
movement) of a moving object without the need for
external references.[1] Often the inertial sensors are
supplemented by a barometric altimeter and occasionally
by magnetic sensors (magnetometers) and/or speed
measuring devices. INSs are used on mobile robots[2][3]
A 1950s inertial navigation control developed at
and on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines,
MIT.
guided missiles, and spacecraft. Other terms used to refer
to inertial navigation systems or closely related devices
include inertial guidance system, inertial instrument,
inertial measurement unit (IMU) and many other variations. Older INS systems generally used an inertial
platform as their mounting point to the vehicle and the terms are sometimes considered synonymous.

Contents
Overview
Drift rate
History
Guidance in human spaceflight
Aircraft inertial guidance
Inertial navigation systems in detail
Basic schemes
Gimballed gyrostabilized platforms
Fluid-suspended gyrostabilized platforms
Strapdown systems
Motion-based alignment Comparison of accuracy of various navigation
Vibrating gyros systems. The radius of the circle indicates the
accuracy. A smaller radius corresponds to a higher
Hemispherical resonator gyros (wine glass or
accuracy.
mushroom gyros)
Quartz rate sensors
MHD sensor
MEMS gyroscope
Ring Laser Gyros (RLG)
Fiber optic gyros (FOG)
Pendular accelerometers
TIMU (Timing & Inertial Measurement Unit)
sensors
 Method
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Overview
Inertial navigation is a self-contained navigation technique in which measurements provided by accelerometers
and gyroscopes are used to track the position and orientation of an object relative to a known starting point,
orientation and velocity. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) typically contain three orthogonal rate-gyroscopes
and three orthogonal accelerometers, measuring angular velocity and linear acceleration respectively. By
processing signals from these devices it is possible to track the position and orientation of a device.

Inertial navigation is used in a wide range of applications including the navigation of aircraft, tactical and
strategic missiles, spacecraft, submarines and ships. It is also embedded in the mostly nowadays mobile phone
for purpose of mobile phone location and tracking [4][5] Recent advances in the construction of
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have made it possible to manufacture small and light inertial
navigation systems. These advances have widened the range of possible applications to include areas such as
human and animal motion capture.

An inertial navigation system includes at least a computer and a platform or module containing accelerometers,
gyroscopes, or other motion-sensing devices. The INS is initially provided with its position and velocity from
another source (a human operator, a GPS satellite receiver, etc.) accompanied with the initial orientation and
thereafter computes its own updated position and velocity by integrating information received from the motion
sensors. The advantage of an INS is that it requires no external references in order to determine its position,
orientation, or velocity once it has been initialized.

An INS can detect a change in its geographic position (a move east or north, for example), a change in its
velocity (speed and direction of movement) and a change in its orientation (rotation about an axis). It does this
by measuring the linear acceleration and angular velocity applied to the system. Since it requires no external
reference (after initialization), it is immune to jamming and deception.

Inertial navigation systems are used in many different moving objects. However, their cost and complexity
place constraints on the environments in which they are practical for use.

Gyroscopes measure the angular velocity of the sensor frame with respect to the inertial reference frame. By
using the original orientation of the system in the inertial reference frame as the initial condition and integrating
the angular velocity, the system's current orientation is known at all times. This can be thought of as the ability
of a blindfolded passenger in a car to feel the car turn left and right or tilt up and down as the car ascends or
descends hills. Based on this information alone, the passenger knows what direction the car is facing but not
how fast or slow it is moving, or whether it is sliding sideways.

Accelerometers measure the linear acceleration of the moving vehicle in the sensor or body frame, but in
directions that can only be measured relative to the moving system (since the accelerometers are fixed to the
system and rotate with the system, but are not aware of their own orientation). This can be thought of as the
ability of a blindfolded passenger in a car to feel himself pressed back into his seat as the vehicle accelerates
forward or pulled forward as it slows down; and feel himself pressed down into his seat as the vehicle
accelerates up a hill or rise up out of their seat as the car passes over the crest of a hill and begins to descend.
Based on this information alone, he knows how the vehicle is accelerating relative to itself, that is, whether it is
accelerating forward, backward, left, right, up (toward the car's ceiling), or down (toward the car's floor)
measured relative to the car, but not the direction relative to the Earth, since he did not know what direction the
car was facing relative to the Earth when they felt the accelerations.

However, by tracking both the current angular velocity of the system and the current linear acceleration of the
system measured relative to the moving system, it is possible to determine the linear acceleration of the system
in the inertial reference frame. Performing integration on the inertial accelerations (using the original velocity
as the initial conditions) using the correct kinematic equations yields the inertial velocities of the system and
integration again (using the original position as the initial condition) yields the inertial position. In our example,
if the blindfolded passenger knew how the car was pointed and what its velocity was before he was
blindfolded and if he is able to keep track of both how the car has turned and how it has accelerated and
decelerated since, then he can accurately know the current orientation, position, and velocity of the car at any
time.

Drift rate
All inertial navigation systems suffer from integration drift: small errors in the measurement of acceleration
and angular velocity are integrated into progressively larger errors in velocity, which are compounded into still
greater errors in position.[6][7] Since the new position is calculated from the previous calculated position and
the measured acceleration and angular velocity, these errors accumulate roughly proportionally to the time
since the initial position was input. Even the best accelerometers, with a standard error of 10 micro-g, would
accumulate a 50-meter error within 17 minutes.[8] Therefore, the position must be periodically corrected by
input from some other type of navigation system.

Accordingly, inertial navigation is usually used to supplement other navigation systems, providing a higher
degree of accuracy than is possible with the use of any single system. For example, if, in terrestrial use, the
inertially tracked velocity is intermittently updated to zero by stopping, the position will remain precise for a
much longer time, a so-called zero velocity update. In aerospace particularly, other measurement systems are
used to determine INS inaccuracies, e.g. the Honeywell LaseRefV inertial navigation systems uses GPS and
air data computer outputs to maintain required navigation performance. The navigation error rises with the
lower sensitivity of the sensors used. Currently, devices combining different sensors are being developed, e.g.
attitude and heading reference system. Because the navigation error is mainly influenced by the numerical
integration of angular rates and accelerations, the Pressure Reference System was developed to use one
numerical integration of the angular rate measurements.

Estimation theory in general and Kalman filtering in particular,[9] provide a theoretical framework for
combining information from various sensors. One of the most common alternative sensors is a satellite
navigation radio such as GPS, which can be used for all kinds of vehicles with direct sky visibility. Indoor
applications can use pedometers, distance measurement equipment, or other kinds of position sensors. By
properly combining the information from an INS and other systems (GPS/INS), the errors in position and
velocity are stable. Furthermore, INS can be used as a short-term fallback while GPS signals are unavailable,
for example when a vehicle passes through a tunnel.

In 2011, GPS jamming at the civilian level became a governmental concern.[10] The relative ease in ability to
jam these systems has motivated the military to reduce navigation dependence on GPS technology.[11] Inertial
navigation sensors cannot be jammed.[12] In 2012, researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory reported
an inertial measurement unit consisting of micro-electromechanical system triaxial accelerometers and tri-axial
gyroscopes with an array size of 10 that had a Kalman filter algorithm to estimate sensor nuisance parameters
(errors) and munition position and velocity.[11] Each array measures six data points and the system coordinates
the data together to deliver a navigation solution. If one sensor consistently over or underestimates distance, the
system can adjust, adjusting the corrupted sensor's contributions to the final calculation.[13]
The addition of the heuristic algorithm reduced a flight's calculated distance error from 120m to 40m from the
designated target. The researchers coupled the algorithm with GPS or radar technology to initial and aid the
navigation algorithm. At various points during the munition's flight they would cut off tracking and estimate
the accuracy of the munition's landing. In a forty-second flight, 10s and 20s availability of aiding demonstrated
little difference in error as both were approximately 35m off target. No noticeable difference was observed
when experimentation took place with 100 sensor arrays rather than ten.[11] The researchers indicate this
limited experimental data signifies an optimization of navigation technology and a potential reduction in cost of
military systems.[13]

History
Inertial navigation systems were originally developed for rockets. American rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard
experimented with rudimentary gyroscopic systems. Dr. Goddard's systems were of great interest to
contemporary German pioneers including Wernher von Braun. The systems entered more widespread use with
the advent of spacecraft, guided missiles, and commercial airliners.

Early German World War II V2 guidance systems combined two gyroscopes and a lateral accelerometer with a
simple analog computer to adjust the azimuth for the rocket in flight. Analog computer signals were used to
drive four graphite rudders in the rocket exhaust for flight control. The GN&C (Guidance, Navigation, and
Control) system for the V2 provided many innovations as an integrated platform with closed loop guidance. At
the end of the war von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and
test vehicles, to the Americans. They arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1945 under the provisions of Operation
Paperclip and were subsequently moved to Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950[14] where they worked for U.S.
Army rocket research programs.

In the early 1950s, the US government wanted to insulate itself against over dependency on the German team
for military applications, including the development of a fully domestic missile guidance program. The MIT
Instrumentation Laboratory (later to become the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.) was chosen by the Air
Force Western Development Division to provide a self-contained guidance system backup to Convair in San
Diego for the new Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile [15][16][17][18] (Construction and testing were
completed by Arma Division of AmBosch Arma). The technical monitor for the MIT task was a young
engineer named Jim Fletcher who later served as the NASA Administrator. The Atlas guidance system was to
be a combination of an on-board autonomous system and a ground-based tracking and command system. The
self-contained system finally prevailed in ballistic missile applications for obvious reasons. In space
exploration, a mixture of the two remains.

In the summer of 1952, Dr. Richard Battin and Dr. J. Halcombe "Hal" Laning, Jr., researched computational
based solutions to guidance and undertook the initial analytical work on the Atlas inertial guidance in 1954.
Other key figures at Convair were Charlie Bossart, the Chief Engineer, and Walter Schweidetzky, head of the
guidance group. Schweidetzky had worked with von Braun at Peenemünde during World War II.

The initial Delta guidance system assessed the difference in position from a reference trajectory. A velocity to
be gained (VGO) calculation is made to correct the current trajectory with the objective of driving VGO to
zero. The mathematics of this approach were fundamentally valid, but dropped because of the challenges in
accurate inertial guidance and analog computing power. The challenges faced by the Delta efforts were
overcome by the Q system (see Q-guidance) of guidance. The Q system's revolution was to bind the
challenges of missile guidance (and associated equations of motion) in the matrix Q. The Q matrix represents
the partial derivatives of the velocity with respect to the position vector. A key feature of this approach allowed
for the components of the vector cross product (v, xdv, /dt) to be used as the basic autopilot rate signals—a
technique that became known as cross-product steering. The Q-system was presented at the first Technical
Symposium on Ballistic Missiles held at the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Los Angeles on June 21 and
22, 1956. The Q system was classified information through the 1960s. Derivations of this guidance are used
for today's missiles.

Guidance in human spaceflight

In February 1961 NASA awarded MIT a contract for preliminary design study of a guidance and navigation
system for Apollo. MIT and the Delco Electronics Div. of General Motors Corp. were awarded the joint
contract for design and production of the Apollo Guidance and Navigation systems for the Command Module
and the Lunar Module. Delco produced the IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) for these systems, Kollsman
Instrument Corp. produced the Optical Systems, and the Apollo Guidance Computer was built by Raytheon
under subcontract (see Apollo on-board guidance, navigation and control system, Dave Hoag, International
Space Hall of Fame Dedication Conference in Alamogordo, N.M., October 1976[19]).

For the Space Shuttle, open loop (no feedback) guidance was used to guide the Shuttle from lift-off until Solid
Rocket Booster (SRB) separation. After SRB separation the primary Space Shuttle guidance is named PEG
(Powered Explicit Guidance). PEG takes into account both the Q system and the predictor-corrector attributes
of the original "Delta" System (PEG Guidance). Although many updates to the Shuttle's navigation system
had taken place over the last 30 years (ex. GPS in the OI-22 build), the guidance core of the Shuttle GN&C
system had evolved little. Within a manned system, there is a human interface needed for the guidance system.
As astronauts are the customer for the system, many new teams were formed that touch GN&C as it is a
primary interface to "fly" the vehicle.

Aircraft inertial guidance

One example of a popular INS for commercial aircraft was the Delco Carousel, which provided partial
automation of navigation in the days before complete flight management systems became commonplace. The
Carousel allowed pilots to enter 9 waypoints at a time and then guided the aircraft from one waypoint to the
next using an INS to determine aircraft position and velocity. Boeing Corporation subcontracted the Delco
Electronics Div. of General Motors to design and build the first production Carousel systems for the early
models (-100, -200 and -300) of the 747 aircraft. The 747 utilized three Carousel systems operating in concert
for reliability purposes. The Carousel system and derivatives thereof were subsequently adopted for use in
many other commercial and military aircraft. The USAF C-141 was the first military aircraft to utilize the
Carousel in a dual system configuration, followed by the C-5A which utilized the triple INS configuration,
similar to the 747. The KC-135 fleet was fitted with a dual Carousel system that was aided by a Doppler radar.
ARINC Characteristic 704 defines the INS used in commercial air transport.

Inertial navigation systems in detail

INSs contain Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) which have angular and
linear accelerometers (for changes in position); some IMUs include a
gyroscopic element (for maintaining an absolute angular reference).

Angular accelerometers measure how the vehicle is rotating in space.

Generally, there is at least one sensor for each of the three axes: pitch (nose
up and down), yaw (nose left and right) and roll (clockwise or counter-
clockwise from the cockpit).

Linear accelerometers measure non-gravitational accelerations[20] of the

vehicle. Since it can move in three axes (up & down, left & right, forward & back), there is a linear
accelerometer for each axis.
 A computer continually calculates the vehicle's current position. First,
for each of the six degrees of freedom (x,y,z and θx , θy and θz), it
integrates over time the sensed acceleration, together with an estimate
of gravity, to calculate the current velocity. Then it integrates the
velocity to calculate the current position.

Inertial guidance is difficult without computers. The desire to use

inertial guidance in the Minuteman missile and Project Apollo drove
early attempts to miniaturize computers.
Inertial navigation unit of French
Inertial guidance systems are now usually combined with satellite
IRBM S3.
navigation systems through a digital filtering system. The inertial
system provides short term data, while the satellite system corrects
accumulated errors of the inertial system.

An inertial guidance system that will operate near the surface of the earth must incorporate Schuler tuning so
that its platform will continue pointing towards the center of the earth as a vehicle moves from place to place.

Basic schemes

Gimballed gyrostabilized platforms

Some systems place the linear accelerometers on a gimballed gyrostabilized platform. The gimbals are a set of
three rings, each with a pair of bearings initially at right angles. They let the platform twist about any rotational
axis (or, rather, they let the platform keep the same orientation while the vehicle rotates around it). There are
two gyroscopes (usually) on the platform.

Two gyroscopes are used to cancel gyroscopic precession, the tendency of a gyroscope to twist at right angles
to an input torque. By mounting a pair of gyroscopes (of the same rotational inertia and spinning at the same
speed in opposite directions) at right angles the precessions are cancelled and the platform will resist twisting.

This system allows a vehicle's roll, pitch and yaw angles to be measured directly at the bearings of the gimbals.
Relatively simple electronic circuits can be used to add up the linear accelerations, because the directions of the
linear accelerometers do not change.

The big disadvantage of this scheme is that it uses many expensive precision mechanical parts. It also has
moving parts that can wear out or jam and is vulnerable to gimbal lock. The primary guidance system of the
Apollo spacecraft used a three-axis gyrostabilized platform, feeding data to the Apollo Guidance Computer.
Maneuvers had to be carefully planned to avoid gimbal lock.

Fluid-suspended gyrostabilized platforms

Gimbal lock constrains maneuvering and it would be beneficial to eliminate the slip rings and bearings of the
gimbals. Therefore, some systems use fluid bearings or a flotation chamber to mount a gyrostabilized platform.
These systems can have very high precisions (e.g., Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere). Like all
gyrostabilized platforms, this system runs well with relatively slow, low-power computers.

The fluid bearings are pads with holes through which pressurized inert gas (such as helium) or oil presses
against the spherical shell of the platform. The fluid bearings are very slippery and the spherical platform can
turn freely. There are usually four bearing pads, mounted in a tetrahedral arrangement to support the platform.
In premium systems, the angular sensors are usually specialized transformer coils made in a strip on a flexible
printed circuit board. Several coil strips are mounted on great circles around the spherical shell of the
gyrostabilized platform. Electronics outside the platform uses similar strip-shaped transformers to read the
varying magnetic fields produced by the transformers wrapped around the spherical platform. Whenever a
magnetic field changes shape, or moves, it will cut the wires of the coils on the external transformer strips. The
cutting generates an electric current in the external strip-shaped coils and electronics can measure that current
to derive angles.

Cheap systems sometimes use bar codes to sense orientations and use solar cells or a single transformer to
power the platform. Some small missiles have powered the platform with light from a window or optic fibers
to the motor. A research topic is to suspend the platform with pressure from exhaust gases. Data is returned to
the outside world via the transformers, or sometimes LEDs communicating with external photodiodes.

Strapdown systems

Lightweight digital computers permit the system to eliminate the gimbals, creating strapdown systems, so
called because their sensors are simply strapped to the vehicle. This reduces the cost, eliminates gimbal lock,
removes the need for some calibrations and increases the reliability by eliminating some of the moving parts.
Angular rate sensors called rate gyros measure the angular velocity of the vehicle.

A strapdown system needs a dynamic measurement range several hundred times that required by a gimballed
system. That is, it must integrate the vehicle's attitude changes in pitch, roll and yaw, as well as gross
movements. Gimballed systems could usually do well with update rates of 50–60 Hz. However, strapdown
systems normally update about 2000 Hz. The higher rate is needed to let the navigation system integrate the
angular rate into an attitude accurately.

The data updating algorithms (direction cosines or quaternions) involved are too complex to be accurately
performed except by digital electronics. However, digital computers are now so inexpensive and fast that rate
gyro systems can now be practically used and mass-produced. The Apollo lunar module used a strapdown
system in its backup Abort Guidance System (AGS).

Strapdown systems are nowadays commonly used in commercial and military applications (aircraft, ships,
ROVs, missiles, etc.). State-of-the-art strapdown systems are based upon Ring Laser Gyroscopes, Fibre Optic
Gyrocopes or Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscopes. They are using digital electronics and advanced digital
filtering techniques such as Kalman filter.

Motion-based alignment

The orientation of a gyroscope system can sometimes also be inferred simply from its position history (e.g.,
GPS). This is, in particular, the case with planes and cars, where the velocity vector usually implies the
orientation of the vehicle body.

For example, Honeywell's Align in Motion[21] is an initialization process where the initialization occurs while
the aircraft is moving, in the air or on the ground. This is accomplished using GPS and an inertial
reasonableness test, thereby allowing commercial data integrity requirements to be met. This process has been
FAA certified to recover pure INS performance equivalent to stationary align procedures for civilian flight
times up to 18 hours. It avoids the need for gyroscope batteries on aircraft.

Vibrating gyros
Less-expensive navigation systems, intended for use in automobiles, may use a vibrating structure gyroscope
to detect changes in heading and the odometer pickup to measure distance covered along the vehicle's track.
This type of system is much less accurate than a higher-end INS, but it is adequate for the typical automobile
application where GPS is the primary navigation system and dead reckoning is only needed to fill gaps in GPS
coverage when buildings or terrain block the satellite signals.

Hemispherical resonator gyros (wine glass or mushroom gyros)

If a standing wave is induced in a hemispheric resonant structure and then the resonant structure is rotated, the
spherical harmonic standing wave rotates through an angle different from the quartz resonator structure due to
the Coriolis force. The movement of the outer case with respect to the standing wave pattern is proportional to
the total rotation angle and can be sensed by appropriate electronics. The system resonators are machined from
fused quartz due to its excellent mechanical properties. The electrodes that drive and sense the standing waves
are deposited directly onto separate quartz structures that surround the resonator. These gyros can operate in
either a whole angle mode (which gives them nearly unlimited rate capability) or a force rebalance mode that
holds the standing wave in a fixed orientation with respect to the gyro housing (which gives them much better
accuracy).

This system has almost no moving parts and is very accurate. However it is still relatively expensive due to the
cost of the precision ground and polished hollow quartz hemispheres. Northrop Grumman currently
manufactures IMUs (inertial measurement units) for spacecraft that use HRGs. These IMUs have
demonstrated extremely high reliability since their initial use in 1996.[22] Safran manufactures large numbers
of HRG based inertial systems dedicated to a wide range of applications.[23]

Quartz rate sensors

These products include 'tuning fork gyros'. Here, the gyro is designed
as an electronically driven tuning fork, often fabricated out of a single
piece of quartz or silicon. Such gyros operate in accordance with the
dynamic theory that when an angle rate is applied to a translating
body, a Coriolis force is generated.

This system is usually integrated on a silicon chip. It has two mass-

balanced quartz tuning forks, arranged "handle-to-handle" so forces
cancel. Aluminum electrodes evaporated onto the forks and the The quartz rate sensor inside an E-
underlying chip both drive and sense the motion. The system is both Sky (https://web.archive.org/web/201
manufacturable and inexpensive. Since quartz is dimensionally stable, 00419014447/http://en.wikipedia.org/
the system can be accurate. wiki/E-Sky_Lama_model_helicopter
s) model helicopter
As the forks are twisted about the axis of the handle, the vibration of
the tines tends to continue in the same plane of motion. This motion
has to be resisted by electrostatic forces from the electrodes under the tines. By measuring the difference in
capacitance between the two tines of a fork, the system can determine the rate of angular motion.

Current state-of-the-art non-military technology (as of 2005) can build small solid-state sensors that can
measure human body movements. These devices have no moving parts and weigh about 50 grams (2 ounces).

Solid-state devices using the same physical principles are used for image stabilization in small cameras or
camcorders. These can be extremely small, around 5 millimetres (0.20 inches) and are built with
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies.[24]
MHD sensor

Sensors based on magnetohydrodynamic principles can be used to measure angular velocities.

MEMS gyroscope

MEMS gyroscopes typically rely on the Coriolis effect to measure angular velocity. It consists of a resonating
proof mass mounted in silicon. The gyroscope is, unlike an accelerometer, an active sensor. The proof mass is
pushed back and forth by driving combs. A rotation of the gyroscope generates a Coriolis force that is acting
on the mass which results in a motion in a different direction. The motion in this direction is measured by
electrodes and represents the rate of turn.[25]

Ring Laser Gyros (RLG)

A ring laser gyro splits a beam of laser light into two beams in opposite directions through narrow tunnels in a
closed circular optical path around the perimeter of a triangular block of temperature-stable Cervit glass with
reflecting mirrors placed in each corner. When the gyro is rotating at some angular rate, the distance traveled
by each beam becomes different—the shorter path being opposite to the rotation. The phase shift between the
two beams can be measured by an interferometer and is proportional to the rate of rotation (Sagnac effect).

In practice, at low rotation rates the output frequency can drop to zero as the result of backscattering causing
the beams to synchronise and lock together. This is known as a lock-in, or laser-lock. The result is that there is
no change in the interference pattern and therefore no measurement change.

To unlock the counter-rotating light beams, laser gyros either have independent light paths for the two
directions (usually in fiber optic gyros), or the laser gyro is mounted on a piezo-electric dither motor that
rapidly vibrates the laser ring back and forth about its input axis through the lock-in region to decouple the
light waves.

The shaker is the most accurate, because both light beams use exactly the same path. Thus laser gyros retain
moving parts, but they do not move as far.

Fiber optic gyros (FOG)

A more recent variation on the optical gyroscope, the fiber optic gyroscope, uses an external laser and two
beams going opposite directions (counter-propagating) in long spools (several kilometers) of fiber optic
filament, with the phase difference of the two beams compared after their travel through the spools of fiber.

The basic mechanism, monochromatic laser light travelling in opposite paths and the Sagnac effect, is the same
in a FOG and a RLG, but the engineering details are substantially different in the FOG compared to earlier
laser gyros.

Precise winding of the fiber-optic coil is required to ensure the paths taken by the light in opposite directions
are as similar as possible. The FOG requires more complex calibrations than a laser ring gyro making the
development and manufacture of FOG's more technically challenging that for a RLG. However FOG's do not
suffer from laser lock at low speeds and do not need to contain any moving parts, increasing the maximum
potential accuracy and lifespan of a FOG over an equivalent RLG.

Pendular accelerometers
The basic, open-loop accelerometer consists of a mass attached to a
spring. The mass is constrained to move only in line with the spring.
Acceleration causes deflection of the mass and the offset distance is
measured. The acceleration is derived from the values of deflection
distance, mass and the spring constant. The system must also be
damped to avoid oscillation. A closed-loop accelerometer achieves
higher performance by using a feedback loop to cancel the deflection,
thus keeping the mass nearly stationary. Whenever the mass deflects,
the feedback loop causes an electric coil to apply an equally negative
force on the mass, canceling the motion. Acceleration is derived from
the amount of negative force applied. Because the mass barely moves, Principle of open loop accelerometer.
the effects of non-linearities of the spring and damping system are Acceleration in the upward direction
greatly reduced. In addition, this accelerometer provides for increased causes the mass to deflect
bandwidth beyond the natural frequency of the sensing element. downward.

Both types of accelerometers have been manufactured as integrated

micro-machinery on silicon chips.

TIMU (Timing & Inertial Measurement Unit) sensors

DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) department is working on a Micro-PNT (Micro-

Technology for Positioning, Navigation and Timing) program to design Timing & Inertial Measurement Unit
(TIMU) chips that do absolute position tracking on a single chip without GPS-aided navigation.[26][27][28]

Micro-PNT adds a highly accurate master timing clock[29] integrated into an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)
chip, making it a Timing & Inertial Measurement Unit chip. A TIMU chip integrates 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis
accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer together with a highly accurate master timing clock, so that it can
simultaneously measure the motion tracked and combine that with timing from the synchronized clock.[26][27]

Method
In one form, the navigational system of equations acquires linear and angular measurements from the inertial
and body frame, respectively and calculates the final attitude and position in the NED frame of reference.
Where: f is specific force, is angular rate, a is acceleration, R is position, and V are velocity, is the
angular velocity of the earth, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h are the NED location parameters.
Also, super/subscripts of E, I and B are representing variables in the Earth centered, Inertial or Body reference
frame, respectively and C is a transformation of reference frames.[30]

See also
Adam Air Flight 574
Attitude control
Dead reckoning
Fibre-optic gyroscope
Globus navigation system
Guidance system
Hemispherical resonator gyroscope
Kalman filter
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
LN-3 inertial navigation system
PIGA accelerometer
Quantum compass
Rate integrating gyroscope
Ring laser gyroscope
Schuler tuning
Spacecraft

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Further reading
Zanetti, Renato; d'Souza, Christopher (2020), "Inertial Navigation", Encyclopedia of Systems
and Control, pp. 1–7, doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5102-9_100036-1 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F97
8-1-4471-5102-9_100036-1), ISBN 978-1-4471-5102-9
A.D. King (1998). "Inertial Navigation – Forty Years of Evolution" (http://www.imar-navigation.d
e/downloads/papers/inertial_navigation_introduction.pdf) (PDF). GEC Review. General
Electric Company plc. 13 (3): 140–149.
E. v. Hinueber (iMAR Navigation) (2011). "Design of an Unaided Aircraft Attitude Reference
System with Medium Accurate Gyroscopes for Higher Performance Attitude Requirements".
Inertial Sensors and Systems - Symposium Gyro Technology, Karlsruhe / Germany. iMAR
Navigation / DGON. 2011.

External links
Principle of operation of an accelerometer (https://web.archive.org/web/20050515100810/http://
www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~mk1/2prin.pdf)
Overview of inertial instrument types (https://web.archive.org/web/20060702160632/http://www.
media.mit.edu/resenv/classes/MAS836/Inertialnotes/DraperOverview.pdf)
Oxford Technical Solutions Inertial Navigation Guide (http://www.oxts.com/what-is-inertial-navig
ation-guide/)
 Listing of open-source Inertial Navigation system (https://acassis.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/lis
ting-of-open-source-inertial-navigation-system/)
Impact of inertial sensor errors on Inertial Navigation System position and attitude errors (http
s://www.imar-navigation.de/downloads/Decision_assistant-Dateien/Decision_assistant.pdf)
Introduction to Inertial Navigation Systems in UAV/Drone Applications (https://www.unmanneds
ystemstechnology.com/expo/inertial-navigation-systems/?location=guide)

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