Tightly coupled GPS/INS integration for missile applications

An approach to enhance the performance of tightly coupled GPS/INS systems is described. First, the advantages of tightly coupled systems compared to loosely coupled systems are clarified. Then, it is shown in hardware-in-the-loop tests and in a test drive that processing time differenced carrier phase measurements instead of delta-range measurements results in an increased velocity and attitude accuracy for the tightly coupled system, which is of great importance in the beginning of a time interval with purely inertial navigation, e.g. when GPS is lost due to jamming. A measurement equation is derived allowing to process the time differenced carrier phase measurements in the navigation Kalman filter. Finally, the proposed method is applied to missile navigation systems, where significant vibrations enter the inertial sensor data.