| Abstract: | During the last years, integrated navigation systems based on gyros, accelerometers, and GPS receivers became powerful devices for the guidance of aircraft and ships. Comparable equipment using especially wheel sensors exists for cars. The kernel of such systems is a Kalman filter estimating the relevant vehicle motion. The filter design in turn requires a kinematical model to settle on the motion components considered and to describe the mechanical meaning of the measurements employed. Until now, usual models consider only one to six degrees of freedom of a single rigid body. The assumption of a solitary rigid body is not a consequence of the basic concept of integrated navigation; it reflects merely classical navigation requirements. In principle, determining the motion of multibody systems, representing certain vehicle types of varying shape, is possible if appropriate kinematical models and sensor arrangements are available. Based on the theory of integrated navigation systems, the paper outlines the fundamentals of designing integrated motion measurement systems for rigid multibody structures. The example of a double pendulum with a movable inertial support and with equipment of microelectromechanical inertial sensors and of small radar units illustrates this approach. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) |
