Mounting-Angle Estimation for Personal Navigation Devices

This paper presents several methods to estimate the three mounting angles (roll, pitch, and yaw) of an inertial measurement cluster for use in a personal navigation device (PND) within a ground vehicle. Previous research in global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation systems assumes that the orientation of the inertial cluster relative to the host vehicle is already known. A typical driver would arbitrarily mount a PND in their vehicle, and the driver would have no simple way to measure the PND orientation angles. Proper mechanization of the inertial measurements for navigation requires these angles to be precisely known. Methods utilizing forward and rearward acceleration and vehicle orientation from GPS velocity components to determine the PND mounting angles are described. The pitch, roll, and yaw mounting angles are estimated to within 2?? of truth when utilizing consumer-grade accelerometers.