Hybrid Inertial Sensor Error Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional inertial sensors suffer from bias, scale factor errors, and drift over time and environmental changes, limiting their accuracy and usability in applications requiring high bandwidth and continuous measurement, while atomic inertial sensors provide high resolution but with limited bandwidth and gaps due to cooling cycles, restricting their effectiveness in navigation and high g applications.
Innovation Solution
A method combining multiple high sample rate readings from conventional inertial sensors with non-contiguous low sample rate readings from atomic inertial sensors to estimate and compensate for observable errors, enabling gap-free readout and continuous recalibration, thereby enhancing accuracy and operational range through a hybrid measurement system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If conventional inertial sensors are used, then high bandwidth and continuous measurement are achieved, but bias, scale factor errors, and drift over time significantly degrade measurement accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines conventional inertial sensors (providing high bandwidth) with atomic inertial sensors (providing high accuracy) into a hybrid system. The conventional sensors operate continuously at high sample rates while atomic sensors provide periodic calibration references, merging the advantages of both sensor types to achieve both high bandwidth and high measurement precision simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses atomic inertial sensor measurements as a reference to continuously estimate and compensate for errors in conventional inertial sensors. The error estimation process compares atomic sensor data with conventional sensor data, and the compensation feedback loop applies corrections to maintain accuracy over time while preserving high bandwidth operation.
2Measurement precision
If atomic inertial sensors are used, then high resolution and accuracy are achieved, but limited bandwidth and gaps between samples due to cooling cycles reduce their effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges atomic inertial sensors with conventional inertial sensors to compensate for the bandwidth limitation. While atomic sensors provide high-resolution measurements at lower rates, conventional sensors fill in the gaps with continuous high-bandwidth data, creating a hybrid system that achieves both high resolution and adequate bandwidth for navigation applications.
Solution Approach 2:
Conventional inertial sensors act as intermediaries that bridge the gaps between atomic sensor samples. They provide continuous measurement data during the cooling and preparation cycles of atomic sensors, enabling the high-accuracy atomic measurements to be effectively utilized without losing bandwidth required for dynamic navigation applications.
3Measurement precision
If a hybrid system combining atomic and conventional inertial sensors is used, then measurement accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the measurement function into two distinct components: atomic inertial sensors for high-accuracy reference measurements and conventional inertial sensors for continuous high-bandwidth operation. This segmentation allows each sensor type to operate in its optimal regime while reducing the overall complexity compared to attempting to make a single sensor type perform all functions.
Data Source
AI summary
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.