A low-cost inertial smoothing system for landing approach guidance

Accurate position and velocity information with low noise content for instrument approaches and landings is required for both control and display applications. In a current VTOL automatic instrument approach and landing research program, radar-derived landing guidance position reference signals, which are noisy, have been mixed with acceleration information derived from low-cost onboard sensors to provide high-quality position and velocity information. An in-flight comparison of signal quality and accuracy has shown good agreement between the low-cost inertial smoothing system and an aided inertial navigation system. Furthermore, the low-cost inertial smoothing system has been proven to be satisfactory in control and display system applications for both automatic and pilot-in-the-loop instrument approaches and landings.