Integrating satellite and inertial navigation—conventional and new fusion approaches

Abstract The backbone of aiding inertial navigation systems by satellite navigation receivers is the data fusion of the subsystem outputs. Its conventional mechanization emerged from the classical, necessary aiding of inertial navigation systems and is based on linearized error models. Recent approaches therefore use directly the nonlinear kinematical equations of the rigid body motion. These methods lead to a simpler system structure as well as to smaller estimation error variances. To verify this statement, the paper presents a systematization of the different fusion schemes and a comparison between results of postprocessed flight test data.