System and method of compensating for pressure sensor errors and noise in inertial vertical loop data

摘要

A system and method for improving the accuracy of altitude determinations in an inertial navigation system. The system utilizes pressure measurements which are taken by a barometric altimeter and converted into an estimated pressure altitude using any known pressure-to-altitude conversion. A pressure correction value is then generated using a correction value generating formula that is a function of altitude. The pressure correction value is then multiplied by a pressure offset value for the barometric altimeter to generate a pressure offset error for the barometric altimeter. This pressure offset error is used in the present invention to modify the pressure altitude estimation in order to generate an altitude determination having an improved accuracy. The present invention further determines an amount of observation noise in the barometric altimeter that is a function of pressure noise and altitude, where the altitude estimation is further modified to account for the observation noise. Thus, the system and method of the present invention improves the accuracy of altitude determinations in inertial navigation system over prior systems by directly accounting for errors in pressure measurements taken by a barometric altimeter due to offset and noise.