Shipborne heading determination and error compensation based on a dynamic baseline

Abstract Lengthening the baseline between antennas and compensating for heading error caused by vessel motion are two challenges encountered in using global positioning system (GPS) information to estimate the heading of a sailing vessel. In this study, a heading determination system (HDS), which consists of two quadruple GPS antenna arrays, an inertial navigation system (INS), and a total station surveying apparatus (TSSA), was developed to build a dynamic long baseline between two vessels. A heading determination algorithm is then presented based on the HDS. A heading error model, which considers TSSA time delay, is also designed to compensate for heading error and improve heading accuracy. The proposed algorithm has been examined by conducting mooring and sea tests. Test results are compared with the high-accuracy heading reference provided by the same INS. The standard deviations (std) of the heading error in the mooring and sea tests are ±6″ and ±17″, respectively. After parameter identification and error compensation using the heading error model, the heading error in the sea test is reduced to ±8″ from ±17″, thus proving the effectiveness of the proposed error compensation method. The experimental results demonstrate the capability of the HDS for high-performance shipborne heading determination.