Patent ID: 7289906
Filing Date: 2007-10-30
Classification: G01C,G01S

Abstract:
1. A method performed in an integrated navigation system to estimate the navigational state of an object, the navigational state characterized by random variables of a kinematics-based system state space model, the system state space model specifying a time evolution of the system and its relationship to sensor observations, comprising: acquiring observation data produced by measurement sensors that provide noisy information about the navigational state, the measurement sensors including an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a global positioning system (GPS) operating to provide information for estimating a set of navigational state components that include position, velocity, attitude, and angular velocity; and providing a probabilistic inference system to combine the observation data with prediction values of the system state space model to estimate the navigational state, the probabilistic inference system implemented to include a realization of a Gaussian approximate random variable propagation technique performing deterministic sampling without analytic derivative calculations.