Inertial navigation

system

An inertial navigation system (INS) is a

navigation device that uses motion
sensors (accelerometers), rotation
sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer 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 sometimes by
magnetic sensors (magnetometers)
and/or speed measuring devices. INSs are
used on mobile robots[2][3] and on vehicles
such as ships, aircraft, submarines, guided
missiles, and spacecraft.[4] 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.

A 1950s inertial navigation control developed at MIT.

Integrals in the time domain implicitly

demand a stable and accurate clock for
the quantification of elapsed time.
Comparison of accuracy of various navigation systems. The radius of the circle indicates the accuracy. A smaller radius
corresponds to a higher accuracy.

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 some mobile phones for
purposes of mobile phone location and
tracking.[5][6] 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 themself pressed back into their
seat as the vehicle accelerates forward or
pulled forward as it slows down; and feel
themself pressed down into their 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, they
know 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 they 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 they were blindfolded, and if they
are able to keep track of both how the car
has turned and how it has accelerated and
decelerated since, then they 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.[7][8] 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 (164-ft) error
within 17 minutes.[9] 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,[10] 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), 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.[11] The
relative ease in ability to jam these
systems has motivated the military to
reduce navigation dependence on GPS
technology.[12] Because inertial navigation
sensors do not depend on radio signals
unlike GPS, they cannot be jammed.[13] In
2012, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory
reported a method to merge
measurements from 10 pairs of MEMS
gyroscope and accelerometers (plus
occasional GPS), reducing the positional
error by two thirds for a projectile. The
algorithm can correct for systemic biases
in individual sensors, using both GPS and
a heuristic based on the gun-firing
acceleration force. If one sensor
consistently over or underestimates
distance, the system can adjust the
corrupted sensor's contributions to the
final calculation.[14]

History
Inertial navigation systems were originally
developed for rockets. American rocketry
pioneer Robert Goddard experimented
with rudimentary gyroscopic systems.
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[15] 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
[16][17][18][19] (Construction and testing were
completed by Arma Division of AmBosch
Arma). The technical monitor for the MIT
task was engineer Jim Fletcher, who later
served as 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 21 and 22 June 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 the
Apollo program. 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.[20][21]

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 crewed 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.

Early use in 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-135A fleet was fitted with a single
Carousel IV-E system that could operate
as a stand-alone INS or can be aided by
the AN/APN-81 or AN/APN-218 Doppler
radar. Some special-mission variants of
the C-135 were fitted with dual Carousel
IV-E INSs. ARINC Characteristic 704
defines the INS used in commercial air
transport.
Inertial navigation systems in
detail

Diagram denoting roll, pitch and yaw axes of an aircraft in flight

Inertial navigation unit of French IRBM S3.

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[22] 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 guidance systems are now usually

combined with satellite 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[23] 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 alignment
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.[24] Safran manufactures large
numbers of HRG based inertial systems
dedicated to a wide range of
applications.[25]

Quartz rate sensors

The quartz rate sensor inside an E-Sky (https://web.archive.org/web/20100419014447/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Sky_
Lama_model_helicopters) model helicopter

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 underlying chip both drive and sense
the motion. The system is both
manufacturable and inexpensive. Since
quartz is dimensionally stable, the system
can be accurate.

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.[26]
MHD sensor

Sensors based on magnetohydrodynamic

principles can be used to measure angular
velocities.

MEMS gyroscope

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.[27]

Ring Laser Gyros (RLG)

Ring laser gyroscope

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 will differ—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

Principle of open loop accelerometer. Acceleration in the upward direction causes the mass to deflect downward.
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,
the effects of non-linearities of the spring
and damping system are greatly reduced.
In addition, this accelerometer provides for
increased bandwidth beyond the natural
frequency of the sensing element.

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.[28][29][30]

Micro-PNT adds a highly accurate master

timing clock[31] 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.[28][29]

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.[32]
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%2
F978-1-4471-5102-9_100036-1) ,
ISBN 978-1-4471-5102-9
A.D. King (1998). "Inertial Navigation –
Forty Years of Evolution" (http://www.im
ar-navigation.de/downloads/papers/iner
tial_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 (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/2006070216
0632/http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/
classes/MAS836/Inertialnotes/DraperO
verview.pdf)
Oxford Technical Solutions Inertial
Navigation Guide (http://www.oxts.com/
what-is-inertial-navigation-guide/)
Listing of open-source Inertial
Navigation system (https://acassis.word
press.com/2014/06/16/listing-of-open-s
ource-inertial-navigation-system/)
Impact of inertial sensor errors on
Inertial Navigation System position and
attitude errors (https://www.imar-naviga
tion.de/downloads/Decision_assistant-
Dateien/Decision_assistant.pdf)
Introduction to Inertial Navigation
Systems in UAV/Drone Applications (htt
ps://www.unmannedsystemstechnolog
y.com/expo/inertial-navigation-system
s/?location=guide)
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Inertial_navigation_system&oldid=115602231
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