INERTIAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM

An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation aid that uses a computer,

motion sensors (accelerometers) and rotation sensors (gyroscopes) to continuously
calculate via dead reckoning the position, orientation, and velocity (direction and
speed of movement) of a moving object without the need for external references. It
is used on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines, guided missiles, and
spacecraft. An inertial navigation system includes at least a computer and a
platform or module containing accelerometers, gyroscopes, or other motion-sensing
devices. The INS is initially provided with its position and velocity from another
source (a human operator, a GPS satellite receiver, etc.), and thereafter computes
its own updated position and velocity by integrating information received from the
motion sensors. The advantage of an INS is that it requires no external references in
order to determine its position, orientation, or velocity once it has been initialized.

INS provides information regarding

Position(lat-long)
A/C speed
Heading
Track of aircraft
INS is provided with TAS input to calculate wind velocity and direction. The
only data needed for INS computation is starting position of the aircraft. Basis
of INS lies in the measurement of acceleration. Two accelerometers and two
integrators are used .One accelerometer is used to measure acceleration
along east-west axis and second accelerometer measures acceleration along
north-south axis.
ACCELEROMETERS
The outputs from accelerometers are fed to integrators. Accelerometers are
the heart of INS. The acceleration input fed to first integrator produces
velocity which is again integrated to distance flown in the second integrator.
Direction of travel is determined by the virtue of the accelerometer. They use
inertia to measure acceleration. The most commonly used accelero -meter in
aircraft is pendulous force balance type. The accelerometers should be
positioned earth horizontal so that they do not measure acceleration due to
gravity.

Two types of inertial systems are commonly in use

Strap down system
Gyro stabilized system
In gyro stabilized system the accelerometers are placed on a stabilized
platform where as in strap down systems the accelerometers are
placed along the aircraft axes. The inertial system which employs strap
down theory are known as Inertial reference systems which uses a
special type of sensor known as Ring laser gyro.
MAIN UNITS OF INS
Inertial navigation unit
Mode selector unit
Control Display unit
Battery unit

Mode selector panel

The various modes of operation of the stable platform INS are selected by
means of a simple panel,. The rotary switch shown has five positions and there
are two illuminated annunciators.

STANDBY (SBY): is the mode selected to switch the system on. In this
mode power is supplied to the system and the gyros are warmed and spun
up to operating speed..

ALIGN: selects the alignment mode, during which the leveling and
alignment procedure described above takes place. When this is completed
the READY NAV annunciator illuminates, indicating that the INS is ready
for use.

NAV: is the navigation mode, used throughout the period of ground

movement and flight and during which the INS will make all its
navigation calculations and display them as required on the control and
display unit.

ATT REF is the attitude reference mode and is only used when the INS
computer fails to provide its navigational information. In this mode the
stable platform is used to provide heading, pitch and roll information.

CONTROL AND DISPLAY UNIT: This unit serves as the primary interface
 between the flight crew and the inertial system computer, in that it contains
the controls necessary for the selection and display of all essential
navigational data.

BATTERY UNIT: This unit provides DC power for turning the system on is also used
as back up in the event that power from an aircrafts system is interrupted. The INS
has its own internal battery, which is capable of supplying power to the
system for a limited period, typically about 15 minutes, in the event of loss
of the normal power supply. The BATT annunciator will illuminate red when the
battery power falls to a predetermined level, warning the pilot that the INS
is about to fail.

INERTIAL NAVIGATION UNIT : An inertial navigation unit, or INU, is an

electronic device that measures and reports on a icraft's velocity, orientation, and
gravitational forces, using a combination of accelerometers and gyroscopes,
sometimes also magnetometers. The INU is the main component of inertial
navigation systems used in aircraft. In this capacity, the data collected from the
INU's sensors allows a computer to track a craft's position, using a method known
as dead reckoning. An INU works by detecting the current rate of acceleration using
one or more accelerometers, and detects changes in rotational attributes like pitch,
roll and yaw using one or more gyroscopes.
GENERAL THEORY OF OPERATION: The main function of INS is to find out the
present position of the aircraft with respect to starting point and waypoints. For that
accelerometers and integrators are used. The acceleration of the aircraft is
calculated by accelerometer and is fed to 1 st integrator where the acceleration is
integrated to velocity. This velocity is fed to a second integrator where it is
converted to distance travelled. This distance travelled and the starting position will
help to calculate the present position of the aircraft.

INS self-alignment
The gyro-stabilizing platform is self-leveling and self-aligning, but these
functions can only normally be carried out in non-military aircraft with the
aircraft stationary on the ground. In order to compute the speed, distance
travelled and position of the aircraft the INS must first be referenced to
north at the current aircraft position, which is fed into the computer by the
pilot from airfield information.
Leveling and alignment are initiated by switching the INS to STANDBY
and inserting the present position in terms of latitude and longitude, and
then selecting ALIGN mode.
Levelling
Conventional systems reduce the time taken to level the platform by using
gravity to achieve coarse levelling, followed by fine levelling using the
accelerometers.

Coarse levelling: During coarse levelling the pitch and roll gimbals
are typically driven by the servo motors until they are mutually
perpendicular and the platform is brought to within about 1 of level
using either gravity or reference to the airframe.

Fine levelling: With the aircraft stationary and the platform level
there should be no output from the accelerometers. If there is an output
from either or both accelerometers this indicates that the platform is
not level and that acceleration due to gravity is being sensed. The
output signals from the accelerometers are used to torque the north and
east gyros, which in turn use the pitch and roll servo motors to drive
the platform about the pitch and roll axes until output from the
accelerometers is zero.

Gyro-compassing
The process of aligning the platform with the local meridian is usually
referred to as gyro-compassing or azimuth alignment and it is the final stage
of the alignment procedure. Most modern north-referenced gyro-stabilised
platforms use a system called open loop gyro-compassing.