Abstract AAS 97-673

AAS 97-673

EVALUATION OF GPS/IMU TRAJECTORY ESTIMATION PERFORMANCE FOR REALTIME MISSILE FLIGHT SAFETY

J. McConnell, R. Greenberg - SW/XPE and Dr. R. Brooks, Dr. J. Hsieh - ITT/FSC

Abstract

The application of maturing technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and strapdown inertial navigation to the problems of flight safety for Ballistic missiles and Spacelift vehicles is of growing interest at the Eastern (ER) and Western Range (WR). An area of particular interest is the integration of GPS user equipment and on-board inertial measurement units (IMU) to exploit the synergism between these two technologies and achieve enhanced metric accuracy for realtime tracking and instantaneous impact prediction (IIP). This study is to establish the minimal amount of GPS tracking required to effect inflight calibration and alignment sufficient to meet flight safety objectives.