Patent attributes
A GPS-aided inertial navigation method includes providing multiple sensors including multiple inertial measurement units (IMUs) and at least one global positioning system receivers and antennas (GPSs) and computer with embedded navigation software. The computer interfaces with all IMUs and all GPS receivers; running, in parallel, in multiple standard inertial navigation (IN) schemes; computes the mean of all the INSs to obtain a fused IN solution for the IMUs' mean location; computes the mean of all the GPS solutions to obtain a fused GPS solution for the GPS antennas' mean location; applies a lever-arm correction, with the vector from the mean IMU location to the ‘mean antenna’ location, to the fused GPS solution; feeds the fused IN solution and the lever-arm corrected fused GPS solution to a single navigation filter, as if there were a single IMU and a single GPS; and runs an IMU/IN/GPS correction module.
