Global Positioning Systems, Inertial Navigation, and Integration, Second Edition

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

This book is intended for people who need to combine global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs), inertial navigation systems (INSs), and Kalman filters. Our objective is to give our readers a working familiarity with both the theoretical and practical aspects of these subjects. For that purpose we have included “real-world” problems from practice as illustrative examples. We also cover the more practical aspects of implementation: how to represent problems in a mathematical model, analyze performance as a function of model parameters, implement the mechanization equations in numerically stable algorithms, assess its computational requirements, test the validity of results, and monitor performance in operation with sensor data from GNSS and INS. These important attributes, often overlooked in theoretical treatments, are essential for effective application of theory to real-world problems.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains MATLAB m-files to demonstrate the workings of the Kalman filter algorithms with GNSS and INS data sets, so that the reader can better discover how the Kalman filter works by observing it in action with GNSS and INS. The implementation of GNSS, INS, and Kalman filtering on computers also illuminates some of the practical considerations of finite-wordlength arithmetic and the need for alternative algorithms to preserve the accuracy of the results. Students who wish to apply what they learn, must experience all the workings and failings ...