Observability and performance analysis of integrated GPS/INS navigation systems

This primary objective of this thesis is to analyze the performance and observability characteristics of integrated navigation systems which fuse the information from the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) of varying quality. It is shown that INS output error characteristics affect the notion of observability with these systems. More specifically; it is shown that when INS sensor quality is low, the traditional metrics of deterministic and stochastic observability are incomplete metrics to describe the system performance. Accordingly, a new metric as well as detailed trade study results that characterize the observability of GPS/INS fusion filter which use low quality inertial sensors is developed.; A secondary objective of this thesis is to evaluate the use of an integrated GPS/INS system in two aviation applications of significant current interest. The first application is about monitoring and mitigating the impact of structural flexure of an aircraft carrier which is he host of the GPS-based landing system known as Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems (JPALS). A mathematic error model is developed and validated using experimental ship motion data. The second application is that of checking the integrity of the GPS signal used in GPS-based landing systems such as JPALS and other landing systems envisioned for future use in commercial aviation. An inertial aided Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) algorithm is designed and its performance improvements with inertial aiding are quantified.