Design, Simulation, and Performance Analysis of an INS/GPS System using Parallel Kalman Filters Structure

Thanks to the strong growth of MEMS technology, the Inertial Navigation System (INS) is widely applied to navigation and guidance of moving objects. However, there exist errors in the inertial sensor’s signals that cause unacceptable drifts. To minimize these effects on the INS system, a GPS is usually employed simultaneously with an INS in order to increase the dimension of the system; the desired parameters are estimated by Kalman filtering technique applied to the enlarged system. In this paper, we present the design, simulation and performance analysis of an INS/GPS system using two parallel Kaman filters in order to increase the accuracy of the parameter estimation process. The results show that this system could be efficiently brought to practical applications.