Transfer alignment of shipborne aircraft with large misalignment based on rotation vector error model

To realize the rapid alignment of the shipborne aircrafts with large initial heading error, a rotation vector error (RVE) model is deduced. The velocity matching and the velocity plus angular rate matching methods are respectively applied to implement the transfer alignment algorithm. In view of the stability and rapidity of nonlinear filter, a square-root unscented Kalman filter is used to estimate the attitude misalignment. Simulation results shows that the rotation vector error model has higher accuracy compared with the nonlinear phi angle model, and by using the velocity plus angular rate matching method, the transfer alignment of shipborne aircraft inertial navigation system can be accomplished in 50 s, and the horizontal and heading precisions are within 20″ and 1', respectively. These show that the proposed algorithm can meet the rapidity and accuracy requirements of the transfer alignment.