Analysis of upgraded GPS internal Kalman filter

GPS receivers with provisions for inertial navigation system (INS) aiding are designed with internal Kalman filters that model generic INSs and process the basic GPS pseudorange and deltarange (range-rate) data to produce an output of inertially-smoothed, “GPS-derived” position and velocity. These Kalman filters model only the basic nine INS errors (position, velocity, and tilt) and do not model any INS gyro or accelerometer errors. It was found that a significant performance improvement could be achieved under conditions of degraded GPS satellite availability by augmenting this type of filter with the six INS gyro and accelerometer bias errors. It is, therefore, recommended that serious consideration be given to incorporating these states into the design of the GPS internal Kalman filter