Instantaneous observability of tightly coupled SINS/GPS during maneuvers

The tightly coupled strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS)/global position system (GPS) has been widely used. The system observability determines whether the system state can be estimated by a filter efficiently or not. In this paper, the observability analysis of a two-channel and a three-channel tightly coupled SINS/GPS are performed, respectively, during arbitrary translational maneuvers and angle maneuvers, where the translational maneuver and angle maneuver are modeled. A novel instantaneous observability matrix (IOM) based on a reconstructed psi-angle model is proposed to make the theoretical analysis simpler, which starts from the observability definition directly. Based on the IOM, a series of theoretical analysis are performed. Analysis results show that almost all kinds of translational maneuver and angle maneuver can make a three-channel system instantaneously observable, but there is no one translational maneuver or angle maneuver can make a two-channel system instantaneously observable. The system’s performance is investigated when the system is not instantaneously observable. A series of simulation studies based on EKF are performed to confirm the analytic conclusions.