High-Accuracy Decoupling Estimation of the Systematic Coordinate Errors of an INS and Intensified High Dynamic Star Tracker Based on the Constrained Least Squares Method

• Main Authors: Jie Jiang, Wenbo Yu, Guangjun Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-10-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: inertial navigation system; attitude accuracy assessment; intensified high dynamic star tracker; installation error; misalignment error; decoupling estimation model; constrained least squares
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/10/2285

Navigation accuracy is one of the key performance indicators of an inertial navigation system (INS). Requirements for an accuracy assessment of an INS in a real work environment are exceedingly urgent because of enormous differences between real work and laboratory test environments. An attitude accuracy assessment of an INS based on the intensified high dynamic star tracker (IHDST) is particularly suitable for a real complex dynamic environment. However, the coupled systematic coordinate errors of an INS and the IHDST severely decrease the attitude assessment accuracy of an INS. Given that, a high-accuracy decoupling estimation method of the above systematic coordinate errors based on the constrained least squares (CLS) method is proposed in this paper. The reference frame of the IHDST is firstly converted to be consistent with that of the INS because their reference frames are completely different. Thereafter, the decoupling estimation model of the systematic coordinate errors is established and the CLS-based optimization method is utilized to estimate errors accurately. After compensating for error, the attitude accuracy of an INS can be assessed based on IHDST accurately. Both simulated experiments and real flight experiments of aircraft are conducted, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and shows excellent performance for the attitude accuracy assessment of an INS in a real work environment.