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Tightly Coupled Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (TCMIG)Many NASA applications planned for execution later this decade are seeking high performance, miniaturized, low power Inertial Management Units (IMU). Much research has gone into Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) over the past decade as a solution to these needs. While MEMS devices have proven to provide high accuracy acceleration measurements, they have not yet proven to have the accuracy required by many NASA missions in rotational measurements. Therefore, a new solution has been formulated integrating the best of all IMU technologies to address these mid-term needs in the form of a Tightly Coupled Micro Inertial Navigation System (INS)/Global Positioning System (GPS) (TCMIG). The TCMIG consists of an INS and a GPS tightly coupled by a Kalman filter executing on an embedded Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processor. The INS consists of a highly integrated Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope (IFOG) and a MEMS accelerometer. The IFOG utilizes a tightly wound fiber coil to reduce volume and the high level of integration and advanced optical components to reduce power. The MEMS accelerometer utilizes a newly developed deep etch process to increase the proof mass and yield a highly accurate accelerometer. The GPS receiver consists of a low power miniaturized version of the Blackjack receiver. Such an IMU configuration is ideal to meet the mid-term needs of the NASA Science Enterprises and the new launch vehicles being developed for the Space Launch Initiative (SLI).
Document ID
20020067401
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Watson, Michael D.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Jackson, Kurt
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
May 28, 2002
Subject Category
Aircraft Communications And Navigation
Meeting Information
Meeting: NanoSpace 2002
Location: Galveston, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: June 25, 2002
End Date: June 27, 2002
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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