Performance enhancement for ultra-tight GPS/INS integration using a fuzzy adaptive strong tracking unscented Kalman filter

This paper conducts performance evaluation for the ultra-tight integration of Global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) by use of the fuzzy adaptive strong tracking unscented Kalman filter (FASTUKF). An ultra-tight GPS/INS integration architecture involves fusion of the in-phase and quadrature components from the correlator of the GPS receiver with the INS data. These two components are highly nonlinearly related to the navigation states. The strong tracking unscented Kalman filter (STUKF) is based on the combination of an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and strong tracking algorithm (STA) to perform the parameter adaptation task for various dynamic characteristics. The STA is basically a nonlinear smoother algorithm that employs suboptimal multiple fading factors, in which the softening factors are involved. In order to resolve the shortcoming in a traditional approach for selecting the softening factor through personal experience or computer simulation, the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive System (FLAS) is incorporated for determining the softening factor, leading to the FASTUKF. Two examples are provided for illustrating the effectiveness of the design and demonstrating effective improvement in navigation estimation accuracy and, therefore, the proposed FASTUKF algorithm can be considered as an alternative approach for designing the ultra tightly coupled GPS/INS integrated navigation system.