Abstract
Inertial navigation represents a unique method of navigation, in which there is no dependency on external sources of information. As opposed to other position fixing navigation techniques, inertial navigation performs the navigation in a relative sense with respect to the initial navigation state of the moving platform. Hence, inertial navigation systems are not prone to jamming, or spoofing. Inertial navigation systems have developed vastly, from their occurrence in the 1940s up to date. The accuracy of the inertial sensors has improved over time, making inertial sensors sufficient in terms of size, weight, cost, and accuracy for navigation and guidance applications. Within the past few years, inertial sensors have developed from being purely mechanical into incorporating various technologies and taking advantage of numerous physical phenomena, from which the dynamic forces exerted on a moving body could be computed accurately. Besides, the evolution of inertial navigation scheme involved the evolution from stable-platform inertial navigation system, which were mechanically complicated, to computationally demanding strap-down inertial navigation systems. Optical sensory technologies have provided highly accurate inertial sensors, at smaller sizes. Besides, the vibratory inertial navigation technologies enabled the production of Micro-electro-machined inertial sensors that are extremely low-cost, and offer extremely low size, weight and power consumption, making them suitable for a wide range of day-to-day navigation applications. Recently, advanced inertial sensor technologies have been introduced to the industry such as nuclear magnetic resonance technology, cold-atom technology, and the re-introduction of fluid-based inertial sensors. On another note, inertial sensor errors constitute a huge research aspect in which it is intended for inertial sensors to reach level in which they could operate for substantially long operation times in the absence of updates from aiding sensors, which would be a huge leap. Inertial sensors error modeling techniques have been developing rapidly trying to ensure higher levels of navigation accuracy using lower-cost inertial sensors. In this review, the inertial sensor technologies are covered extensively, along the future trends in the inertial sensors’ technologies. Besides, this review covers a brief overview on the inertial error modeling techniques used to enhance the performance of low-cost sensors.
Highlights
The state of motion of any moving platform could be determined through a process known as Navigation
This paper introduces an overview over the classification of the INSs based on their operation mode, into either stable-platform or strap-down INSs, as shown in “General classification of inertial navigation systems” section
Tuned gyroscopes (DTG) State-of-the-art angular rate sensors vary in terms of the utilized technologies and operation principles, which in turn is representative of their accuracy
Summary
Inertial navigation is done by processing the inertial measurements that are acquired from IMUs. The inertial measurements are mathematically reduced into variations in position, velocity, and orientation for the moving platform. A system that utilizes the measurements of IMUs to acquire the navigation states of any moving platform to which it is mounted is known as an inertial navigation system (INS). A scale factor would manifest as deviation of the input–output relation of an inertial sensor from being equal to one Another form of the systematic errors is the scale-factor non-linearity. The performance of any given IMU in terms of providing an accurate navigation solution is defined by the order of magnitude of the systematic and random errors included in its measurements. It is noted that performance parameters upon which the IMUs are classified are discussed afterwards
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