Date of Award
3-24-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Department
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
Meir Pachter, PhD.
Abstract
A method human operated INS aiding is explored in which the pilot identifies and tracks a ground feature of unknown position over a short measurement epoch using an E/O sensor. One then refers to Visual-INS. In contrast to current research trends, a human operator is entrusted with visually tracking the ground feature. In addition, a less conventional measurement linearization technique is applied to generate “converted” measurements. A linear regression algorithm is then applied to the converted measurements providing an estimate of the INS horizontal velocity error and accelerometer biases. At the completion of the measurement epoch, the INS is corrected by subtracting out the estimated errors. Aiding the INS in this manner provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of the INS-provided aircraft navigation state estimates when compared to those of a free/unaided INS. A number of scenario are simulated including with and without a constrained flight path, with single vs. multiple ground feature tracking sessions, and with a navigation vs. tactical grade INS. Applications for this autonomous navigation approach include navigation in GPS denied environments and/or when RF emitting/receiving sensors are undesirable.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-ENG-MS-16-M-036
DTIC Accession Number
AD1053844
Recommended Citation
Montgomery, Turner J., "Visual-INS Using a Human Operator and Converted Measurements" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 314.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/314