Method and apparatus for GPS-denied navigation of spin-stabilized projectiles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9702674-B2
Application number	US-201414454250-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 7, 2014
Priority date	Aug 7, 2014
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided that provides accurate navigation for spin-stabilized projectiles in a GPS-denied environment using low cost measurement sensors, by application of flight dynamics in real-time state estimation algorithms.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for navigation of a spin-stabilized projectile comprising:
receiving current measurement signals from tri-axially positioned magnetometer sensors mounted on the projectile and from tri-axially positioned accelerometer sensors mounted on the projectile;
developing estimated attitude signals of the projectile from the current measurement signals received from the magnetometer sensors;
developing a flight dynamic prediction of the position and velocity of the projectile using the estimated attitude signals;
developing an inertial prediction of the position and velocity of the projectile using the current measurement signals received from the accelerometer sensors and the estimated attitude signals;
combining the flight dynamic prediction and the inertial prediction to generate estimated current position and velocity states for the projectile by optimal estimation; and
applying the estimated current position and velocity states for navigation of the projectile.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing estimated attitude signals includes a transformation from an inertial gun to target frame to a projectile body-fixed frame.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing estimated attitude signals includes an algorithm using flight dynamic modeling.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the flight dynamic modeling assumes that a spin rate of the projectile is much faster than a yaw rate of the projectile, so as to estimate radial magnetometer nuisance parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing estimated attitude signals includes an algorithm that uses flight dynamics in a process model having magnetometer and inertial velocities for measurements.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein developing estimated attitude signals includes an algorithm providing a steady state Kalman filter which speeds up run time through linearizing of the process and measurement models.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing a flight dynamic prediction of the position and velocity estimation of the projectile is achieved using flight dynamics in a process model and propagating state and covariance forward in time without measurement updates.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the process model uses spin rate, angle of attack, and sideslip estimates from the estimated attitude signals to directly calculate aerodynamic forces on the projectile.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the calculated aerodynamic forces on the projectile are processed in combination with the estimated attitude signals and integrated forward in time by a trapezoidal integrator to obtain a velocity prediction and integrated forward in time a second time by the trapezoidal integrator to obtain a position prediction, which velocity prediction and position prediction comprise the flight dynamic prediction.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing an inertial prediction includes nuisance parameter estimation in the measurement signals of accelerometer sensors that are radially mounted on the projectile.

11. The method of claim 10 , where the radial nuisance parameter estimation uses flight dynamic modeling that assumes that dominant error terms in the measurement signals of the accelerometer sensors are determined to be a constant bias and a constant times the square of a spin-rate of the spin-stabilized projectile.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing an inertial prediction includes nuisance parameter estimation in the measurement signal of an accelerometer sensor that is axially mounted on the spin-stabilized projectile.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the axial nuisance parameter estimation is achieved using flight dynamic modeling that assumes a drag equation for the body of the spin-stabilized projectile.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the axial nuisance parameter estimation uses flight dynamic modeling that assumes that dominant error terms in the measurement signal of the axial accelerometer sensor are determined to be a constant bias and a constant times the square of a spin-rate of the spin-stabilized projectile.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining includes formulating two process models, one for the flight dynamic predictions and one for the inertial predictions.

16. The method of claim 15 where optimal estimation comprises combining the two process models to develop a combined prediction that has a minimum variance.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the derivation and implementation of an optimal estimation using two process models and no measurements is achieved within the theoretical framework of a discrete Kalman filter.

18. An apparatus for navigation of a spin-stabilized projectile comprising:
at least one tri-axial magnetometer sensor and one tri-axial accelerometer sensor mounted on the spin-stabilized projectile for supplying current accelerometer and current magnetometer measurement signals,
an attitude estimator responsive to the current magnetometer measurement signals to develop attitude estimation signals for the spin-stabilized projectile;
an attitude integrator responsive to the attitude estimation signals to develop a flight dynamic prediction of the position and velocity of the spin-stabilized projectile,
an acceleration integrator responsive to the acceleration measurement signals to develop an inertial prediction of the position and velocity of the spin-stabilized projectile,
a process model combiner for combining two process models, one for the flight dynamic prediction and one for the inertial prediction, to generate estimated current position and velocity states for the spin-stabilized projectile, and
a guidance and control algorithm for processing the estimated current position and velocity states for the projectile to develop control signals for navigating course corrections for the spin-stabilized projectile.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the attitude estimator includes a coordinate transformation model for transforming signals from an inertial gun to target frame to a projectile body-fixed frame.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the process model combiner develops an optimal estimation by combining the dynamic and inertial predictions in a manner so as to have a minimum variance.

Assignees

• U S Army Res Laboratory Attn: Rdrl-Loc-I
• Us Army

Inventors

• Fairfax Luisa D
• Fresconi Frank E
• Maley James M

Classifications

• G01C21/1654

  with electromagnetic compass · CPC title

• F41G7/36

  using inertial references · CPC title

• G01C21/08

  involving use of the magnetic field of the earth · CPC title

• F41G7/006

  Guided missiles training or simulation devices · CPC title

• F42B10/26 Primary

  using spin (F42B10/04, F42B10/12, F42B10/14, F42B10/24, F42B14/02 take precedence) · CPC title