Error analysis in strapdown INS for aircraft assembly lines

This work proposes a methodology for assessing the use of commercial inertial measurement units in manual part alignment operations with high precision requirements, found in aircraft assembly lines. The underlying application is a situation where two separate parts must be mounted at different locations within a facility, guaranteeing a precise angular alignment between them. If, for construction reasons, there is no direct sight between both elements, optical methods must be ruled out and the problem can be tackled by means of inclinometers. However, their precision are often limited compared to standard requirements in aeronautics applications. In this paper we propose a method based on two inertial navigation systems, and provide the tools necessary for determining the precision requirements for the gyroscopes and IMUs involved, based on error dynamics analysis and simulation.