Estimation of conventional inertial sensor errors with atomic inertial sensor

Abstract

The invention refers to estimation of conventional inertial sensor errors with an atomic inertial sensor. Embodiments described herein provide for a method for obtaining an inertial measurement. The method includes obtaining multiple contiguous high sample rate readings during a time period from a conventional inertial sensor. Non-contiguous low sample rate reading of accumulated motion are also obtained over the time period from an atomic inertial sensor. One or more observable errors are estimated for the conventional inertial sensor based on comparing the low sample rate reading to the multiple high sample rate readings. A compensated hybrid reading is determined by compensating the high sample rate readings for the one or more observable errors based on the estimating of the one or more observable errors.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims the benefit of US Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 61 / 600,290, filed February 17, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference. [0003] Statement Regarding Federal Research or Development Funding [0004] This invention was made with government support under Air Force Research Laboratory grant FA9453-05-C-0241. The government has certain rights in this invention. Background technique [0005] Atomic inertial sensors (eg, cold atom accelerometers and gyroscopes) have the potential to provide very accurate, high-resolution detection, however they suffer from the destructive readout of sampled cumulative motion over short periods of time in their normal mode of operation Constraints imposed, the normal mode of operation involves multiple cooling and measurement cycles of confined and separated Bose-Einstein condensates or other suitable populations of prepared atoms. This is not typic...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This is not typically limited to gravimetry or very low gravity (g) applications with very limited bandwidth and range, but the low bandwidth and gap between samples when performing atomic cooling limits their use in ballistic and usefulness in aircraft navigation applications

[0006] Conventional inertial sensors such as vibrating structure gyroscopes, fiber optic gyroscopes, or resonant beam accelerometers can operate at higher bandwidths, but are subject to bias, scale factors that can vary significantly with time and environmental changes. factor), or the influence of other errors, resulting in a very large drift in the measurement readings (drift)

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