Estimation of errors in inertial navigation systems with GPS measurements

In this paper, observability properties of a multiantenna GPS measurement system for the estimation of errors in INS are presented. It is shown that time-invariant INS error models are observable with measurements from at least three GPS antennas on the vehicle. There is at least one unobservable mode with two antennas. There are three unobservable modes with one antenna. It is also shown that time-varying INS error models are instantaneously observable with measurements from three GPS antennas. A numerical simulation results are given to verify the effectiveness of the multiantenna measurement system on the INS error estimation. In the simulation, a GPS measurement system is considered in which a trade-off between computational load and accuracy of estimation is achieved.