On Inertial Navigation and Attitude Initialization in Polar Areas
This addresses a critical navigation challenge for systems operating in polar regions, though it is incremental as it builds on existing mechanizations.
The paper tackles the singularity problem in inertial navigation and attitude initialization near the poles by demonstrating that the Earth-frame mechanization effectively handles this issue, with simulation results confirming its effectiveness.
Inertial navigation and attitude initialization in polar areas become a hot topic in recent years in the navigation community, as the widely-used navigation mechanization of the local level frame encounters the inherent singularity when the latitude approaches 90 degrees. Great endeavors have been devoted to devising novel navigation mechanizations such as the grid or transversal frames. This paper highlights the fact that the common Earth-frame mechanization is sufficiently good to well handle the singularity problem in polar areas. Simulation results are reported to demonstrate the singularity problem and the effectiveness of the Earth-frame mechanization.