Spectral Analysis of Optimal and Suboptimal Gyro Monitoring Filters

Gyro monitoring filters are used to estimate and correct gyro drift rates of local-level inertial navigation systems. Conventional gyro monitoring filters are usually designed based on a simplified model of gyro drift rate. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these filters-and of many filters of the "Kalman" type-is often measured in terms of the root mean square (rms) criterion in contrast to the spectral content criterion typical of classical Wiener filtering theory. This paper has two objectives: to propose a gyro monitoring filter which is based on a more detailed model of gyro drift rate; and to propose a method of filter performance evaluation which uses as criterion a measure of the spectral content of the error process. The proposed gyro monitoring filter is shown to have improved spectral contents resulting in superior navigation performance for the gyro error models used in the calculations (comparable to commercial-grade aircraft gyros).