Comparison of INS based angular rate matching methods for measuring dynamic deformation

Modern day large sized ships, both for commercial or military use, have flexible structures and require establishing a unified attitude standard on entire ship. The shipboard angular alignment errors between two locations would comprise of static errors and dynamic errors. Whereas different vessels would have different dynamic deformation in response to the motion on the waves, but it can be effectively represented by second order Markov process. By use of inertial measurement matching of inertial navigation systems, comparing estimates of angular rate, relative orientation of the two locations can be deduced. Two different methods for estimation of ship deformation; one the iterative algorithm and second using linear optimal Kalman Filter, both based on the angular rate matching are compared on the basis of results under same simulation conditions. Some conclusions are drawn for the possible use of the methods in different situations.