Inertial navigation system

An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (direction and speed of movement) of a moving object without the need for external references. Often the inertial sensors are supplemented by a barometric altimeter and sometimes by magnetic sensors (magnetometers) and/or speed measuring devices. INSs are used on mobile robots and on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines, guided missiles, and spacecraft. Other terms used to refer to inertial navigation systems or closely related devices include inertial guidance system, inertial instrument, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and many other variations. Older INS systems generally used an inertial platform as their mounting point to the vehicle and the terms are sometimes considered synonymous. Integrals in the time domain implicitly demand a stable and accurate clock for the quantification of elapsed time. Inertial navigation is a self-contained navigation technique in which measurements provided by accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to track the position and orientation of an object relative to a known starting point, orientation and velocity. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) typically contain three orthogonal rate-gyroscopes and three orthogonal accelerometers, measuring angular velocity and linear acceleration respectively. By processing signals from these devices it is possible to track the position and orientation of a device. Inertial navigation is used in a wide range of applications including the navigation of aircraft, tactical and strategic missiles, spacecraft, submarines and ships. It is also embedded in some mobile phones for purposes of mobile phone location and tracking. Recent advances in the construction of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have made it possible to manufacture small and light inertial navigation systems.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (35)

Related people (24)

Related units (2)

Related concepts (54)

Related courses (28)

Related lectures (287)

Related MOOCs (4)

GNSS/INS Kalman Filter Integrity Monitoring with Uncertain Time Correlated Error Processes

Omar Garcia Crespillo

Safety-critical navigation applications require that estimation errors be reliably quantified and bounded. Over the last decade, significant effort has been put to guarantee a bounded position estimat

EPFL2022

Doppler-based positioning using LEO augmented satellite constellation - Simulations of perspectives

Alice Andreetti

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) refers to a constellation of satellites emitting signals from space, used to provide Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services to the receivers on Ea

2020

, ,

Proper modeling of stochastic errors in inertial sensors plays a crucial role in the achievable quality of GNSS-INS integration especially with low-cost inertial sensors. Generalized Method of Wavelet

2019

PHYS-101(f): General physics : mechanics

Le but du cours de physique générale est de donner à l'étudiant les notions de base nécessaires à la compréhension des phénomènes physiques. L'objectif est atteint lorsque l'étudiant est capable de pr

PHYS-101(en): General physics : mechanics (English)

Students will learn the principles of mechanics to enable a better understanding of physical phenomena, such as the kinematics and dyamics of point masses and solid bodies. Students will acquire the c

ENV-548: Sensor orientation

Determination of spatial orientation (i.e. position, velocity, attitude) via integration of inertial sensors with satellite positioning. Prerequisite for many applications related to remote sensing, e

A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) consists of a ring laser having two independent counter-propagating resonant modes over the same path; the difference in phase is used to detect rotation. It operates on the principle of the Sagnac effect which shifts the nulls of the internal standing wave pattern in response to angular rotation. Interference between the counter-propagating beams, observed externally, results in motion of the standing wave pattern, and thus indicates rotation.

An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers. When the magnetometer is included, IMUs are referred to as IMMUs. IMUs are typically used to maneuver modern vehicles including motorcycles, missiles, aircraft (an attitude and heading reference system), including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), among many others, and spacecraft, including satellites and landers.

Ce cours de base en géomatique présente les concepts et méthodes d’acquisition, de gestion et de représentation des géodonnées. Il inclut les bases de topométrie, géodésie et cartographie, avec un acc

Explores interplanetary trajectories, including departure strategies, sphere of influence, and orbit insertion around the destination planet.

Covers spatio-temporal gait analysis and measuring systems using inertial and other sensors.

Explores Newton's laws of motion, fundamental forces in nature, and the unification of interactions.