Simulation analysis for the influences of vehicle maneuvers to the attitude estimations of GNSS/INS navigation systems

GNSS/INS integrated navigation systems can be used as a positioning and orientation system (POS) to provide high precision attitude and position in Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS). The attitude (roll, pitch, and yaw) errors will diverge with time when the vehicle is moving with low dynamics (e.g. no changes of attitude and acceleration), which makes the attitude estimation weakly observable. This is one dominant error source in the POS applications. It can be mitigated by making corresponding vehicle maneuvers to make the navigation states observable. In this paper, the influences of different vehicle maneuvers to the attitude estimation errors are analyzed through simulation method. Results have shown that the motion with time-varying angular rates or accelerations can enhance the yaw estimation, while uniform circular motion is not useful for yaw error estimation. The outcomes of this paper can provide reference to the motion design of the MMS vehicles to maintain the attitude accuracy of the POS.