A Fast SINS Initial Alignment Method Based on RTS Forward and Backward Resolution

Abstract

For the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), the procedure of initial alignment is a necessity before the navigation can commence. On the quasi-stationary base, the self-alignment can be fulfilled with the high quality inertial sensors, and the fine alignment is usually executed to improve the alignment performance. Generally, fast estimating of heading misalignment is still a challenge due to the existence of gyro errors. An innovative data processing strategy called forward and backward resolution is proposed for INS initial alignment. The Rauch-Tung-Striebel (RTS) smoothing is applied to obtain the smoothed attitude estimates with the filter information provided by the forward data processing. The obtained attitudes are then treated as aiding measurements to implement the forward resolution with the repeated data set, the converged sensor biases are used as constraints, and the iterative processing is conducted to obtain the updated attitudes. Simulation studies have been conducted to validate the proposed algorithm. The results have shown that the alignment accuracy and convergence rate have been improved with the added RTS aided forward and backward resolution; more stable heading estimates can be obtained by calibrating with estimated gyro bias. A real test with a high quality inertial sensor was also carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.