Development of interfacing programs for low cost inertial navigation systems

• Main Author: Huang, Dongyu.
• Other Authors: Low Eicher
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Mechatronics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16887
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nowadays, Inertial Navigation System (INS) is widely used in marine, aviation and aerospace industry. The advancement of Micro-Electromechanical-System allows low cost INS to be developed rapidly. Inertial measurement units and GPS provide measurement data to get inertial navigation solutions. The objective of this final year project is to develop interfacing programs for two inertial measurement units used in low cost INS. Navigation is the planning or maintenance of a course moving from one location to another. Inertial navigation provides navigation solutions by measuring the change in velocity or position. Accelerometers, rate gyroscopes and a processor form an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which outputs acceleration and angular rate to the navigation processor for further calculation of velocity, position and attitude. GPS is used to provide the reference data for the calculation. To develop the interfacing programs, LabVIEW is used as the programming tool. Its Virtual Instrumentation (VI) feature allows the programming to be carried out with block diagrams. The two measurement units IMU300CC and MNAV100CA output digital data through RS-232 serial ports. Programs are developed to configure the serial ports, read data continuously, check data packet validity, calculate and display inertial measurement results. Options of saving measurement data are also provided. The GPS data is output directly from the GPS receiver on MNAV100CA. NMEA 0183 protocol is adopted and GGA (GPS fix) and VTG (course over ground and ground speed) messages are extracted for display and storage. The objective of this project has been achieved, so that inertial sensor and GPS data can be output to a PC in real time.