Aspects of pure and satellite-aided Inertial

Navigation for Gun-Launched Munitions

Thomas Kuhn
Diehl Munitionssysteme GmbH & Co. KG
FischbachstraBe 16
90552 Rothenbach, Germany

- Pure inertial

navigation and satellite-aided inertial

navigation have become standards in many military applications.
This standard of sensors, receivers, algorithms and their implementation can be used for a wide range of systems such as ships,
airplanes and missiles. However, gun-launched munitions have
special requirements due to the following restrictions:

Abstract

initialization and transfer alignment is impossible before launch

launch shock changes sensors which results in significant unknown errors
roll rates can exceed the range of gyros
The resulting syslem requirements can be met by special sensor
concepts such as additional magnetometer sensors and special
navigation algorithms. This paper presents an alternative sensor
concept and navigation algorithm for gnn-launched munitions.
Navigation systems of gun-launched shells have to comprise ghardened sensors aud need to he initialized some time after
launch. Using special algorithms based an Kalman Filters a
sufficient and fast attitude initialization is possible. Additional
stabilization of attitude can be achieved by incorporating magnetometer sensors in the navigation solution.
The sensor concepts and algorithm are explained and results
achieved in simulation, Hardware in the Loop and flight tests are
presented.

of airplanes, submarines and ballistic missiles have been very

expensive, high sophisticated and high maintenance devices.
But also modem missiles using the MEMS-based strap down
inertial navigation systems still need time consuming transfer
alignment procedures before launch. In many applications
these disadvantages are compensated by aiding inertial navigation using satellite triangulation (GPS) or terrain following.
Still, for military applications it has to be assumed, that satellite fixes are not available for the entire mission. Also the
terrain following method needs high inertial navigation
performance, especially for flights over water or flat land
without significant altitude structures.
For inertial navigation being aided by any external references
the Kalman Filter is the most important tool for the multi
sensor fusion. Kalman Filter solutions for tight coupling of
GPS and inertial navigation have become an industrial standard for navigation systems. These standard navigation systems are available for many kinds of mobile systems. But for
certain classes of mobile systems having special characteristics of motion and operational constraints navigation perfomance can be improved significantly by customized solutions.
This paper focuses on the inertial navigation for such a class
of mobile systems having special characteristics and constraints - guided ammunitions. The main constraints for the
inertial navigation of guided ammunitions are:

I. INTRODUCnON
Inertial navigation is probably the most important solution for
military navigation applications. This is because of the characteristic features of inertial versus other methods of navigation.
Inertial navigation does not need external aid or references. It
works everywhere, in caves, tunnels and underwater because it
does not depend on any visibility condition. Inertial navigation
operates absolutely autonomous and stealthy without using
any antenna or producing signatures of any kind or in any
electromagnetic frequency band. Thus, inertial navigation
cannot be disturbed or manipulated by external sources. Finally, inertial navigation is based on inertial sensors that are
also needed for guidance and control purposes of mobile systems.
However, these advantages have their price. Inertial navigation errors grow with navigation time. Thus, inertial sensors
for navigation applications are usually relatively expensive
and require significant calibration effort before operation. The
classical mechanically gimballed inertial navigation systems
0-7803-84 16-4/04/$20.00 02004 IEEE.

The initialization of the navigation cannot be done

before launch. All electronic systems on board will
be shut down during launch. The launch shock initiates the thermal battery and the electronic systems
become operational at an uncertain time with the
shell having an uncertain attitude, uncertain position
and moving at an uncertain speed. The initialization
of the navigation has to be done in-flight based on a
roughly estimated velocity, azimuth and elevation information.
It is useless to try calibrating the inertial sensors of
guided ammunitions before launch. The launch shock
of up to 40.000 g changes the sensor errors unpredictably. Inertial sensor calibration has to be done inflight.
Rates, especially the roll rate of ammunition shells
can intentionally or unintentionally exceed the measurement range of the roll gyro. The navigation solu-

321

tion needs to be sufficient, even if sensors saturate

temporarily.
Guided ammunitions have a very small payload compared to other unmanned warhead carriers with navigation systems. Therefore sensor cost is an essential
factor for the system design and effectiveness. The
preferred low cost inertial sensors have usually large
errors and need external aid to keep navigation errors
in acceptable ranges. On the other hand mission (and
navigation) time is short conipared to other warhead
carriers.
Only gun-hardened components can be used.

In this case inertial navigation is required to provide the guidance and control algorithms with continuous data before the
first, in between and after the last GPS fix. Especially the roll
attitude of free rolling airframes is important. One class of
guided ammunitions is based on pure inertial attitude navigation. An example for this solution is the Precision Guided
Mortar Munition (PGMM) by Lockheed Martin and Diehl as
shown in figure 2.

This paper presents a Kalman Filter approach that provides a

navigation solution within these constraints. First a brief classification of guided ammunitions is given and the classes for
the application of the solution presented are identified. The
algorithm itself and the corresponding sensor concept are
explained. Results of software and hardware in the loop
(HWIL) simulation are shown.
11. CLASSIFICATIONOF GUIDEDAMMUNITIONS
There are various classes of guided ammunitions. One approach is a trajectory correction that can be implemented in a
special fuze by an aerodynamic brake device. Based on GPS
data this correction fuze deploys its aerodynamic brake at a
certain mission time to shorten the ballistic trajectory. In operation the aiming point is set beyond the actual target and the
correction algorithm determines the time for deploying the
brake in order to increase aerodynamic drag and shaping the
trajectory to hit the target. The correction fuze provides only
in plane accuracy improvement and can be used as retrofit
solution to existing spinning projectiles. The correction algorithm works only with GPS position and derived velocity and
flight path information. Inertial navigation is not possible. An
example for a correction fuze is the German Trajectory Correction Fuze (Korrekturziinder) by Diehl as shown in figure 1.

This projectile is being launched by a regular mortar; initializes the inertial attitude navigation in the ballistic ascension to
apogee; and starts guidance after apogee by deploying the
wings. The guidance algorithm provides significant range
extension by letting the projectile glide to the point of seeker
acquisition. Terminal guidance is provided by the seeker homing the PGMM to the target designated by a pulsed laser
beam. The navigation solution presented in this paper can be
applied to ammunitions of the PGMM class.
A typical PGMM mission is shown in figure 3.

-E
U

5
N

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

x LTF lml
Fig. 3. Typical PGMM trajectory

Finally there are guided munitions with guidance principles

that can be compared to guided artillery rockets such as
Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS). The airframes of these munitions are de-rolled and operate with a full
scale autopilot controlling roll, pitch and yaw. Thus, they

The correction fuze cannot be considered as a real guided

ammunition class and will therefore be neglected in this paper.
Actual guidance principles require non-spinning airframes that
can be either free rolling or being roll stabilized. These projectiles d o their final approach by seekers or based on GPS data.
328

require also full scale navigation. However, standard navigation systems will have a hard time initializing the airframe
attitude based on GPS-data only. Also these ammunitions
cannot be pre-initialized and have an unguided ascent to apogee. Therefore the method presented can be very helpful for
fast attitude initialization and GPS-acquisition by rolling GPSantenna up or controlling a wrap around GPS antenna pattern
to avoid jamming influence from ground during the unguided
part of the trajectory. An example for this class of guided
ammunitions, the Precision and Range extended Artillery
Projectile (PRArt) by Diehl is shown in figure 4.

&=p

(2)

Finally the change of velocity can he approximated by the

pitch attitude and a drag model:
-

CO-

V=-gosin@+-pV
S

(3)

Where go is the gravity constant, COis the aerodynamic drag

coefficient; S is the reference area and p i s the air density.
With this few considerations the design of an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for attitude initialization is possible. This
EKF is able to find the roll attitude and pitch attitude as well
as to estimate the typical gyro errors such as bias, scale factor
and cross coupling. After apogee a strap down solution with
sensor error compensation can be calculated using the very
same filter algorithm for the guidance phase. For clarity this
paper shows only the attitude part of the operational Kalman
Filter.
The following formalism is used: The airframe motion is described as a nonlinear discrete state space system of the form:

Fig. 4. Precisian and Range enrended Ariillery Projectile (PRArt) by Diehl

n, = f ( X k - 1 3 %, V k )
In the following text the classification of guided ammunition
will be given by assigning them either to the PGMM or the
PRArt class.
11. IN-FLIGHTINITIALIZATION OF INERTIAL NAVIGATION

As shown above.al1 guided ammunitions of the PGMM and

PRArt class require the in-flight initialization of the navigation, especially the attitude informatian. The munitions are
provided with some basic initialization data such as azimuth,
elevation and muzzle velocity. In case of GPS ephemeredes
data for fast acquisition is provided as well. After storing this
information the flight guidance computer is hibernated and the
projectile is launched. The launch shock initiates the thermal
battery and re-starts the flight computer. One of the first activities is the initialization of the navigation. It is based on the
valid assumption that the airframe is moving on a ballistic
flight path with very small angles of attack. Gravity g is inducing a pitch motion which is proportional to pitch attitude and
inverse speed. It can he simply stated by:

Yk = kg' (

Wk

(4)
(5)

In these equations f describes the state transition function and

g the measurement function. The state vector is described by:

XE

(6)

Which means the state vector is n,-dimensional. The vector of

known and error-free inputs is
U

R""

(7)

and contains usually control flags to switch state equations

based on the airframe configuration and guidance mode. Uncertainties of the system dynamics are described by the vector
of state noise
VE

R"",

(8)

The output (measurement) vector contains usually the estimated sensor signals.
This inertial motion is represented in the body fixed pitch and
yaw rates. The yaw attitude can be assumed as constant. This
assumption is valid, because the airframe is designed to be
very stable in this ballistic phase. The control surfaces are
either inactive fins or non-deployed canards.
Thus, we can also assume that the change of roll attitude is
simply given by the body fixed roll rate.

Y E

9z"y

(9)

The output (measurement) noise is given by:

W E

329

31""

(10)

change of roll attitude

For the representation in the EKF the system equations are

linearized in the sample step k by Jacobian matrices. A is the
Jacobian matrix of the state equation and the states.

change of pirch nrritude

change of yaw arrirude

roll attitude
pirch altitude

(1%

yaw afritude
gyro orientation and scalefacror matrix

F is the Jacobian matrix of the state equations and the state

noise.

gyro bias vecfor

velociry

= (FGUide) guidance Jag

roll gyro signal

C is the Jacobian matrix of the measurement equation and the

states.

G is the Jacobian matrix of the measurement equation and the

measurement noise.

G = -(7,O)

aw

(14)

Besides this system description some more parameters are

required for the EKF design. These are the covariance matrix
of the state noise

Q = E{vk U:}.
the covariance matrix of the measurement noise

R = ~ { w w;}
,

pitch gyro signal

yaw gyro signal

(20)

(21)

The state vector contains 19 states and is based on an Euler

angle representation of attitude. This can be insufficient for
high manoeuvrable airframes due to the singularity for high
pitch angles. However, the different dynamic characteristics of
the degrees of freedom of rotation are easier to separate in this
representation. The initial ballistic flight path up to apogee
does not reach any singularity of the Euler attitude representation. If the flight manoeuvres in the guidance phase require a
quaternion representation the filter algorithm can he switched
with the guidance flag. In the most cases guided ammunitions
do not reach any Euler singularity during the entire trajectory.
The only known and error free input of the filter is the guidance flag. This is set at apogee and along with the change of
the aerodynamic configuration.
The outputs of the filter are the estimated values of the three
gyros. These values contain all estimated sensor errors and are
supposed to match the actual sensor measurements.
First we have a closer look at the state equations of the filter.
If the guidance flag is set the filter performs only strap down
and sensor error compensation. If the guidance flag is not set
the changes of the Euler angles are described as follows:

the initial values for the states

Yo= E {x,,}
'k+l

= 'k -

gocos 0,
"k

and the initial covariance matrix of the state estimation error

vk+l

vk

The change of the roll angle is described as a noise process,

e.g. it is dynamically uncertain how the roll rate changes. This
uncertainty is usually relatively low since the roll rate changes
are smoothly during ballistic phase. The estimation can he
adapted to a given airframe by the corresponding variance
specified in the Q matrix. The change of the pitch angle is
determined by the pitch attitude and the inverse velocity. The
change of yaw angle remains at the initial value.

For the in-flight initialization and following error compensated

strap down navigation the following filter configuration is
used.

330

With the guidance flag set all changes of Euler angles become
noise processes. The manoeuvrability of the airframe can be
specified by the elements of the Q matrix.
The Euler angles are determined by the states describing their
change. Using simple rectangular integration it can be stated
that

Elk+,= 0,
yk+l

+ ATfik

= yk + ATvk

The elements of the sensor orientation matrix and the sensor

bias estimates are not described in the state equations. These
values are assumed to be constant and to be estimated by the
Kalman Filter.
Finally the velocity update is given by:

",+I

=' k

gocos 0,--C,pV,'

Vk

In the full scale version of the filter the aerodynamic drag is

represented as a function of Mach number and the air density
by the position. These estimates are aided by the accelerometer and GPS measurements. But already with simple average
numbers for these values the algorithm produces good results.
Now the output equations for the gyros shall be considered.
First the body fixed rates are calculated by:
1

The EKF is able to finds the roll attitude (gravity direction)

and gyro errors very fast and accurately. This initialization
works even with very poor sensors.
IV. HANDLING
GYROSATURATION
Guided ammunitions of the PGMM class are usually designed
as free rolling airframes with a 2-axis pitch/yaw control actuation system (CAS) only. The reasons for this are the simplified
CAS design and the possibility of canard control without decoupling the rear fins. On the other hand the limitation of the
roll rate can only he achieved by strict tolerances for the airframe components. All aerodynamic parts such as fins, wings
but also smallest slots of the body need to be fabricated very
carefully to avoid roll moments leading to roll rates exceeding
the specified number. With simple strap down navigation the
specification was driven by the range of the roll gyro. Any
sensor saturation lets the conventional strap down navigation
fail. The EKF based algorithm described above is able to negotiate sensor saturations and still produces good results. This
is achieved by a little modification to the standard EKF algorithm.
With the sensor data an additional Boolean vector h of the
same size as the measurement vector y is submitted to the
EKF indicating the validity of the of the sensor elements of y.
If an element of y contains a saturated sensor signal the corresponding element of h is set to zero. Using the elements of h
the measurement vector y is reduced to the valid sensor signals and the saturated signals are excluded from the correction
step of the filter algorithm.

(25)

This ideal body rates are compensated with the gyro errors.
The gyro orientation matrix is not a regular transformation
matrix but contains scale factors and cross coupling errors of
the gyros.

At the same time the Jacobian matrices F and G are adapted

by deleting the invalid rows and columns.
This method is generally possible to use for Kalman Filtering
but it might not always produce correct results. The system
states need to be still observable by the remaining sensor information. This observability is given for the considered application. For a rolling airframe the roll attitude information is
also contained in the pitch and yaw gyro signals. With the roll
gyro being saturated the assumption of a rolling airframe is
correct. The estimation of roll rate and roll attitude can be
derived from the modulation of the pitch movement in the
remaining gyro signals.

The Jacobian matrices can be derived from the state and output equations given above. The initial state vector contains all
a priori knowledge of the trajectory such as elevation, azimuth
and velocity. The initial rates are set to zero. Sensor alignment
and bias data might be set to pre-calibrated values. Since the
sensor errors after launch shock are a priori unknown the use
of the unit matrix for sensor orientation and zeros for gyro bias
estimation is sufficient. The setting of the elements of the
covariance matrices P, Q and R determines the filter performance. The determination of optimal values requires knowledge
of the system dynamics and sensor characteristics.

v. AIDING INERTIAL NAVIGATION BY MAGNETOMETERS

While the EKF estimates the attitude and sensor errors very
accurately in the ballistic part of the trajectory the strap down
navigation in the guided part of the trajectory is critical to the
remaining uncompensated sensor errors. These uncompensated sensor errors include random walk and nonlinearity.
Thus, the sensor quality needs to be still relatively high. To
use low cost inertial sensors external aiding is necessary. For
low cost inertial measurement units the incorporation of magnetic field sensors is a helpful solution. Measuring the earth

331

magnetic field and comparing it to a reference field provides

additional aid for the attitude estimation. This again is only
possible due to the special characteristics and constraints of
guided ammunitions. Several flight tests of spinning and nonspinning shells equipped with magnetometers were conducted
by Diehl. Offline simulations with the telemetry data have
shown that these measurements can provide useful aiding for
navigation. There are several investigation results in place
which describe sensor technology and application.
The Earth's magnetic field is generated in the fluid outer core
by a self-exciting dynamo process. Electrical currents flowing
in the slowly moving molten iron generate the magnetic field.
In addition to sources in the Earths core the magnetic field
observable at the Earths surface bas sources in the crust and in
the ionosphere and magnetosphere. The geomagnetic field
vector, B, is described by the orthogonal components X (northerly intensity), Y (easterly intensity) and 2 (vertical intensity,
positive downwards). The geomagnetic field has a regular
variation with a fundamental period of 24 hours. This regular
variation is dependent on local time, latitude, season and solar
cycle. It is caused by electrical currents in the upper atmosphere, at altitudes between 100 and 130 km above the Earth's
surface. At these altitudes the atmosphere is significantly
ionised by the Sun's ultraviolet and X-radiation and the ions
are moved by winds and tides arising from the heating effects
of the Sun and the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon.
The relatively small ranges of guided ammunitions compared
to the local magnetic changes and the short mission times
compared to the time magnetic changes allow the use of earth
magnetic field information for aiding guided ammunition
navigation.
The operational procedure would use a reference magnetometer within the fire control system, which measures the current
orientation and intensity of the earth magnetic field BE'*h and
transmits this information to the navigation system prior
launch. Based on this information the EKF can predict the
magnetic field measurements of the on board magnetometers.
The EKF described above is just expanded by 12 more states.
These states include the magnetometer orientation matrix and
the magnetometer bias vector.

The predicted magnetic field in body axes is transformed to

the sensor axes and compensated by the bias estimation.

The more complicated part is the correct calculation of the

Jacobian matrices F and G for this output equation.
The covariance values given in matrix R are kept significantly
higher than those for the gyros.
Although the additional sensor signals provide some stability
improvement of the attitude estimation it turned out that the
hest results are achieved for rolling airframes. This can he
explained by the incomplete attitude information given by the
magnetic field. The quality of the improvement becomes better the more orthogonal the flight path is oriented to the earth
magnetic field lines.

VII. SIMULATION AND HARDWARE

IN THE LOOP RESULTS
The EKF algorithm was implemented by a C++ S-function in
MatlablSimulink. The first validation test has been to calculate
the navigation solution for ideal sensors to ensure a hug free
implementation of the filter. These simulations were based on
an available 6dof simulation of PGMM. After the validation
the algorithm was applied to real sensor data which was collected in the Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) lab. The inertial
sensor packages were installed on the turn table shown in
fiPI1W

5. .

change of mil auUude

change of pirch orrirude

changeof yaw ouitude

Y
0
x=

(28)

roll arrirude

0
p

pitch attitude
yaw arrirude

gym Drienlalim and scalefacta m r r i x

gyro bias

Y ~ C I O ~

velociry
mngnerornear orienrorim

and scalefacrw marrlx

The sensors to be tested were moved along a simulated

PGMM trajectory with different aerodynamic roll properties.
As a result of these measurements the sensor and the reference
data from the turn table was used for further offline processing. Two different IMU's were used. A high performance
device -the laser gyro based SAGEM-DTG (see figure 6) and
a typical low cost IMU - the MEMS based XSENS (see figure 7).

mgnelomerer bios vecror

The output equation for the magnetometer signals transforms

the reference magnetic field vector to body axes using the
direction cosine matrix being calculated from the attitude
information of the filter.

332

The ballistic flight ends at t=19.5 seconds. At this time the

guidance flag is set and the wings are deployed. The airframe
performs only one single roll revolution until then. The modulated pitch motion is visible in the pitch and yaw gyro signals.
The reference and the estimation for the Euler angles is shown
in figure 10.
Gyro Signals
0.5

10

20

30

40

50

SO

70

80

Fig 6. SAGEM-DTG

Fig. 9. Signals of SAGEM MU for case I

Fig. 7. XSENS - Low Cost MU

E h Angles

The XSENS contains three MEMS gyros, three MEMS accelerometers and three magnetometers. These sensors are extremely cheap and therefore have significant errors. The sum
of gyro errors for example is about 10"ls.
In the measurements always the same trajectory as shown in
figure 8 was used. Only the roll characteristic was varied.

I
0

10000,

10

20

30

40

50

SO

70

80

Fig. 10. Reference and Kalman Filter Estimation of Euler angles for case 1

About 5 seconds after initialisation the Kalman Filter shows

convergence. The in-flight initialization works very well. In
the guided phase the Euler angle errors remain small. From
t=49 seconds the seeker guides the PGMM to the target. The
attitude error until this time remains small enough to guarantee
seeker acquisition. This is achieved by the sensor error estimation performed during ballistic flight phase. Figure I I shows
the elements of the gyro alignment matrix and figure 12 shows
the gyro bias estimation. Both sensor error estimations are
done mostly during ballistic flight phase and remain constant
after.

A first HWIL test case was the initialization and strap down
performance of attitude navigation. For the test initial values
for the states to be ,estimated @ and 0 were set to random
numbers. The gyro signals of the SAGEM IMU are shown in
figure 9. The simulated trajectory for case 1 is slowly rolling.

333

Fig. 13. Measured and estimated gyro signals of case 2

Fig. 1 1 . Estimation of the elements of the g).ro alignment matrix case 1
Gym Bias

lradlil

The Kalman Filter produces the missing signal of the roll

gyro. The fnst time the saturation is exceeded after the first
second of flight. At this time the approximation is not suffcient. The filter has not found the right solution. But at the
second "failure" between t=7s and k 1 9 . 5 ~the solution is very
good. The filter is producing similar navigation results as
before. The real and estimated Euler angles are shown in figure 14.
Euier Analsr

-5

9
50

10

10

30

40

5"

60

70

I-

80

1 IS1

10

20

30

--T--

x._-----40

50

60

70

60

Fig. 12. Estimation of the gyro bias case I

As the result of this trial the functionality of the algorithm for

attitude navigation can beconfirmed. The single Kalman Filter
can be used throughout the entire flight. However, the true
value of the proposed solution becomes visible with the consideration of the roll gyro sensor saturation case.
In the test case 2 the measurement range of the SAGEM IMU
was limited artificially to k75 degk. To go into saturation with
the real IMU was impossible, beciiuse the SAGEM IMU
would have been shut down automatically. The trajectory is a
higher rolling case as before.
Exceeding the artificial range limit of the gyro was treated as
sensor failure as described above. Figure 13 shows the sensor
signals of the IMU together with the estimated sensor signals
by the EKF.

~,..

,
0

10

20

30
I

40

50

60

~ . .
70

80

[SI

Fig. 14. Real and estimated Euler angles for case 2

To he able doing in-fight attitude initialization without having

to guarantee body roll rates within the gyro range does help to
reduce the cost of airframe design and production. Higher
tolerances for the roll inducing components of the free rolling
airframe can he used.
In test case 3 the low cost XSENS IMU was used without the
magnetometer aiding. The real and the approximated gyro
signals in figure 15 show clearly the significant bias and noise
values of cheap gyros. With some adaptation the Kalman
Filter is able to handle these sensor errors. The in-flight initialization in the ballistic part of the trajectory works very well
as shown in figure 16. However, the strap down for the guided
part is not satisfactory.

334

Gyro Bias [radlrl

0.02

-0.1

20

30

50

60

70

80

40

50

60

70

60

40

50

60

70

60

40

10

10

20

30

10

20

30

1 IS1

Fig. 17. Estimated gyro bias values far case 3

Elements 01 Giro Tnnslomatfion Matti%

Euier Angles

-P

200

-200
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

60

$0

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

50

100

10

100

o
50
I

-100

10

20

30

100

40
t IS1

50

60

70

Fig. 18. Estimated elements of gyro alignment matrix for case 3

60

Finally in case 4 the aiding of attitude navigation by magnetometers is shown. For case 4 the XSENS IMU was used. A
linearization of the magnetic field measurement was necessary
because the assumption of a homogenous and linear local
magnetic field was not valid in the HWIL environment due to
the presence large ferromagnetic bodies. This linearization
was done by a transformation of the magnetic field measurements based on a least squares estimated nonlinearity model of
the magnetic field in the around the HWIL turn table. Figure
19 shows the linear and the measured magnetic field.

Fig. 16. Estimated and real Eulcr angles far case 3

Still, more important is the successful in-flight attitude initialization using lowest performance sensors. As a result the attitude initialization values are estimated for the GPS-aided full
scale navigation. Under the condition of GPS availability the
fast acquisition by directing the GPS-antenna up or controlling
an antenna array can by guaranteed and the further navigation
would be possible even with these low performance sensors.
The Kalman Filter estimations for gyro alignment and bias in
figures 17 and 18 show the huge bias, scale factor and cross
coupling errors that are compensated.

335

Magnetometer 8 EKF

-2

70

80

2,

50

60

70

80

50

60

70

80

10

20

30

40

50

21

10

20

30

40

$0

20

30

40
I IS1

60

10

20

30

40

lradlil

50

60

70

80

I
0

-21

Fig, 21. Linearized and estimated magnetometer measurements

Fig. 19. Measured and linear magnetic field

As shown in figure 20 the in-flight initialization works very

good. At the same time the attitude, the gyro and the magnetometer errors are estimated. The additional magnetometer
aiding helps to achieve satisfying attitude navigation results
with the low performance sensors. The performance is sufficient for inertial navigation of guided ammunitions of the
PGMM type, Even with extremely cheap sensors the required
accuracy for seeker acquisition can be achieved.
Evlei Analef

10

20

IO

30

50

60

70

80

VII.
SUMMARY
Inertial and GPS-aided inertial navigation has become a standard. The navigation system products are the implementations
of this common solution for a wide variety of mobile systems.
However, the customized application of navigation algorithms
can help to fulfill the special requirements of guided ammunitions, Especially the impossibility of pre-launch initialization
is a remarkable restriction in comparison to other mobile systems carrying navigation systems. The paper has shown the
possibility of using ballistic flight path assumptions for attitude transfer alignment. During this alignment procedure not
only the attitude estimation is made. Also the static gyro errors
are estimated. Moreover the incorporation of additional aiding
of attitude navigation by using magnetometer sensors is
shown. The very same in-fight initialization algorithm can be
used to align the magnetometers. Due to the short navigation
time and range this sensor concept can be implemented by low
cost and low performance MEMS gyros and still achieve sufficient results.

VIII. REFERENCES

IS1

[I]

Rg.20. Real and estimated Euler angles for case 4

The additional aid is provided by the magnetic field measurements. Figure 21 shows the linearized measurements and their
estimation by the Kalman Filter.
The magnetometer aid helps to keep the gyro bias estimation
updated. Therefore, even random walk errors of the gyros can
be compensated.

[2]
[3]
[4]

336

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