The inertial navigation system(INS),which is frequently used in emergency rescue operations and other situations,has the benefits of not relying on infrastructure,high positioning frequency,and strong real-time perfor...The inertial navigation system(INS),which is frequently used in emergency rescue operations and other situations,has the benefits of not relying on infrastructure,high positioning frequency,and strong real-time performance.However,the intricate and unpredictable pedestrian motion patterns lead the INS localization error to significantly diverge with time.This paper aims to enhance the accuracy of zero-velocity interval(ZVI)detection and reduce the heading and altitude drift of foot-mounted INS via deep learning and equation constraint of dual feet.Aiming at the observational noise problem of low-cost inertial sensors,we utilize a denoising autoencoder to automatically eliminate the inherent noise.Aiming at the problem that inaccurate detection of the ZVI detection results in obvious displacement error,we propose a sample-level ZVI detection algorithm based on the U-Net neural network,which effectively solves the problem of mislabeling caused by sliding windows.Aiming at the problem that Zero-Velocity Update(ZUPT)cannot suppress heading and altitude error,we propose a bipedal INS method based on the equation constraint and ellipsoid constraint,which uses foot-to-foot distance as a new observation to correct heading and altitude error.We conduct extensive and well-designed experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.The experimental results indicate that the position error of our proposed method did not exceed 0.83% of the total traveled distance.展开更多
This Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and fluxgate magnetometer technologies have been widely used in a variety of positioning and navigation applications. In this paper, a low cost so...This Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and fluxgate magnetometer technologies have been widely used in a variety of positioning and navigation applications. In this paper, a low cost solid state INS/GPS/Magnetometer integrated navigation system has been developed that incorporates measurements from an Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and fluxgate magnetometer (Mag.) to provide a reliable complete navigation solution at a high output rate. The body attitude estimates, especially the heading angle, are fundamental challenges in a navigation system. Therefore targeting accurate attitude estimation is considered a significant contribution to the overall navigation error. A better estimation of the body attitude estimates leads to more accurate position and velocity estimation. For that end, the aim of this research is to exploit the magnetometer and accelerometer data in the attitude estimation technique. In this paper, a Scaled Unscented Kalman Filter (SUKF) based on the quaternion concept is designed for the INS/GPS/Mag integrated navigation system under large attitude error conditions. Simulation and experimental results indicate a satisfactory performance of the newly developed model.展开更多
The principle of the inertial navigation system(INS) with rotating inertial measurement unit (IMU) is analyzed. A new IMU is established to rotate round each axis in three directions. Then, the related error model...The principle of the inertial navigation system(INS) with rotating inertial measurement unit (IMU) is analyzed. A new IMU is established to rotate round each axis in three directions. Then, the related error models for the designed system during rotating are deduced and the improved system is built. Finally, the performance simulation of the proposed system is provided. The simulation result indicates that the designed system can improve the accuracy of the roll and the pitch as well as heading by rotating three axes, thus guaranting the heading accuracy. Moreover, based on the principle of rotation at six different positions, such structure can carry out real-time calibration, and improve the system performance.展开更多
Aiming at the problem of poor observability of measurement information in the loosely-coupled integration of the inertial navigation system (INS) and the wireless sensor network (WSN), this paper presents a tightl...Aiming at the problem of poor observability of measurement information in the loosely-coupled integration of the inertial navigation system (INS) and the wireless sensor network (WSN), this paper presents a tightly-coupled integration based on the Kalman filter (KF). When the WSN is available, the difference between the distances from the blind node(BN) to the reference nodes (RNs) measured by the INS and those measured by the WSN are used as measurement information for the KF due to its better observability and independence, which can effectively improve the accuracy of the KF. Simulations show that the proposed approach reduces the mean error of the position by about 50% compared with loosely-coupled integration, while the mean error of the velocity is a little higher than that of loosely-coupled integration.展开更多
In view of the failure of GNSS signals,this paper proposes an INS/GNSS integrated navigation method based on the recurrent neural network(RNN).This proposed method utilizes the calculation principle of INS and the mem...In view of the failure of GNSS signals,this paper proposes an INS/GNSS integrated navigation method based on the recurrent neural network(RNN).This proposed method utilizes the calculation principle of INS and the memory function of the RNN to estimate the errors of the INS,thereby obtaining a continuous,reliable and high-precision navigation solution.The performance of the proposed method is firstly demonstrated using an INS/GNSS simulation environment.Subsequently,an experimental test on boat is also conducted to validate the performance of the method.The results show a promising application prospect for RNN in the field of positioning for INS/GNSS integrated navigation in the absence of GNSS signal,as it outperforms extreme learning machine(ELM)and EKF by approximately 30%and 60%,respectively.展开更多
To improve the reliability and accuracy of the global po- sitioning system (GPS)/micro electromechanical system (MEMS)- inertial navigation system (INS) integrated navigation system, this paper proposes two diff...To improve the reliability and accuracy of the global po- sitioning system (GPS)/micro electromechanical system (MEMS)- inertial navigation system (INS) integrated navigation system, this paper proposes two different methods. Based on wavelet threshold denoising and functional coefficient autoregressive (FAR) model- ing, a combined data processing method is presented for MEMS inertial sensor, and GPS attitude information is also introduced to improve the estimation accuracy of MEMS inertial sensor errors. Then the positioning accuracy during GPS signal short outage is enhanced. To improve the positioning accuracy when a GPS signal is blocked for long time and solve the problem of the tra- ditional adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) method with poor dynamic adaptation and large calculation amount, a self-constructive ANFIS (SCANFIS) combined with the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed for MEMS-INS errors modeling and predicting. Experimental road test results validate the effi- ciency of the proposed methods.展开更多
A new nonlinear algorithm is proposed for strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS)/celestial navigation system (CNS)/global positioning system (GPS) integrated navigation systems. The algorithm employs a nonl...A new nonlinear algorithm is proposed for strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS)/celestial navigation system (CNS)/global positioning system (GPS) integrated navigation systems. The algorithm employs a nonlinear system error model which can be modified by unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to give predictions of local filters. And these predictions can be fused by the federated Kalman filter. In the system error model, the rotation vector is introduced to denote vehicle's attitude and has less variables than the quaternion. Also, the UKF method is simplified to estimate the system error model, which can both lead to less calculation and reduce algorithm implement time. In the information fusion section, a modified federated Kalman filter is proposed to solve the singular covariance problem. Specifically, the new algorithm is applied to maneuvering vehicles, and simulation results show that this algorithm is more accurate than the linear integrated navigation algorithm.展开更多
To improve the precision of inertial navigation system(INS) during long time operation,the rotation modulated technique(RMT) was employed to modulate the errorr of the inertial sensors into periodically varied sig...To improve the precision of inertial navigation system(INS) during long time operation,the rotation modulated technique(RMT) was employed to modulate the errorr of the inertial sensors into periodically varied signals,and,as a result,to suppress the divergence of INS errors.The principle of the RMT was introduced and the error propagating functions were derived from the rotary navigation equation.Effects of the measurement error for the rotation angle of the platform on the system precision were analyzed.The simulation and experimental results show that the precision of INS was ① dramatically improved with the use of the RMT,and ② hardly reduced when the measurement error for the rotation angle was in arc-second level.The study results offer a theoretical basis for engineering design of rotary INS.展开更多
The dual-axis rotational inertial navigation system(INS)with dithered ring laser gyro(DRLG)is widely used in high precision navigation.The major inertial sensor errors such as drift errors of gyro and accelerometer ca...The dual-axis rotational inertial navigation system(INS)with dithered ring laser gyro(DRLG)is widely used in high precision navigation.The major inertial sensor errors such as drift errors of gyro and accelerometer can be averaged out,but the G-sensitive drifts of laser gyro cannot be averaged out by indexing.A 16-position rotational simulation experiment proves the G-sensitive drift will affect the long-term navigation error for the rotational INS quantitatively.The vibration coupling and asymmetric structure of the DRLG are the main errors.A new dithered mechanism and optimized DRLG is designed.The validity and efficiency of the optimized design are conformed by 1 g sinusoidal vibration experiments.An optimized inertial measurement unit(IMU)is formulated and measured experimentally.Laboratory and vehicle experimental results show that the divergence speed of longitude errors can be effectively slowed down in the optimized IMU.In long term independent navigation,the position accuracy of dual-axis rotational INS is improved close to 50%,and the G-sensitive drifts of laser gyro in the optimized IMU are less than 0.0002°/h.These results have important theoretical significance and practical value for improving the structural dynamic characteristics of DRLG INS,especially the highprecision inertial system.展开更多
A method of improving the navigation accuracy of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is studied. The particular technique discussed involves the continuous rotation of gyros and accelerometers cluster about th...A method of improving the navigation accuracy of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is studied. The particular technique discussed involves the continuous rotation of gyros and accelerometers cluster about the vertical axis of the vehicle. Then the errors of these sensors will have periodic variation corresponding to components along the body frame. Under this condition, the modulated sensor errors produce reduced system errors. Theoretical analysis based on a new coordinate system defined as sensing frame and test results are presented, and they indicate the method attenuates the navigation errors brought by the gyros' random constant drift and the accelerometer's bias and their white noise compared to the conventional method.展开更多
A marine INS/GPS adaptive navigation system is presented. GPS with two antenna providing vessel' s altitude is selected as the auxiliary system fusing with INS to improve the performance of the hybrid system. The Kal...A marine INS/GPS adaptive navigation system is presented. GPS with two antenna providing vessel' s altitude is selected as the auxiliary system fusing with INS to improve the performance of the hybrid system. The Kalman filter is the most frequently used algorithm in the integrated navigation system, which is capable of estimating INS errors online based on the measured errors between INS and GPS. The standard Kalman filter (SKF) assumes that the statistics of the noise on each sensor are given. As long as the noise distributions do not change, the Kalman filter will give the optimal estimation. However GPS receiver will be disturbed easily and thus temporally changing measurement noise will join into the outputs of GPS, which will lead to performance degradation of the Kalman filter. Many researchers introduce fuzzy logic control method into innovation-based adaptive estimation adaptive Kalman filtering (IAE-AKF) algorithm, and accordingly propose various adaptive Kalman filters. However how to design the fuzzy logic controller is a very complicated problem still without a convincing solution. A novel IAE-AKF is proposed herein, which is based on the maximum likelihood criterion for the proper computation of the filter innovation covariance and hence of the filter gain. The approach is direct and simple without having to establish fuzzy inference rules. After having deduced the proposed IAEAKF algorithm theoretically in detail, the approach is tested by the simulation based on the system error model of the developed INS/GPS integrated marine navigation system. Simulation results show that the adaptive Kalman filter outperforms the SKF with higher accuracy, robustness and less computation. It is demonstra- ted that this proposed approach is a valid solution for the unknown changing measurement noise exited in the Kalman filter.展开更多
Strapdown inertial navigation system(SINS)/celestial navigation system(CNS)integrated navigation is widely used to achieve long-time and high-precision autonomous navigation for aircraft.In general,SINS/CNS integrated...Strapdown inertial navigation system(SINS)/celestial navigation system(CNS)integrated navigation is widely used to achieve long-time and high-precision autonomous navigation for aircraft.In general,SINS/CNS integrated navigation can be divided into two integrated modes:loosely coupled integrated navigation and tightly coupled integrated navigation.Because the loosely coupled SINS/CNS integrated system is only available in the condition of at least three stars,the latter one is becoming a research hotspot.One major challenge of SINS/CNS integrated navigation is obtaining a high-precision horizon reference.To solve this problem,an innovative tightly coupled rotational SINS/CNS integrated navigation method is proposed.In this method,the rotational SINS error equation in the navigation frame is used as the state model,and the starlight vector and star altitude are used as measurements.Semi-physical simulations are conducted to test the performance of this integrated method.Results show that this tightly coupled rotational SINS/CNS method has the best navigation accuracy compared with SINS,rotational SINS,and traditional tightly coupled SINS/CNS integrated navigation method.展开更多
The interest for land navigation has increased for the recent years. With the advent of the Global Position System (GPS) we have now the ability to determine the absolute position anywhere on the globe. The problem is...The interest for land navigation has increased for the recent years. With the advent of the Global Position System (GPS) we have now the ability to determine the absolute position anywhere on the globe. The problem is that the GPS systems work well only in open environments with no overhead obstructions and they are subject to large unavoidable errors when the reception from some of the satellites are blocked. This occurs frequently in urban environments, forests and tunnels. GPS systems require at least four “visible” satellites to maintain a good position fix. In many situations in which higher level of accuracy is required, the navigation cannot be achieved by GPS alone. This paper discusses the design of a reliable multisensor fusion algorithm using GPS and Inertial Navigation System in order to decrease the implementation cost of such systems on land vehicles. The major contribution of this paper is in the definition of the possible developments and research axes in land navigation.展开更多
基金supported in part by National Key Research and Development Program under Grant No.2020YFB1708800China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No.2021M700385+5 种基金Guang Dong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation under Grant No.2021A1515110577Guangdong Key Research and Development Program under Grant No.2020B0101130007Central Guidance on Local Science and Technology Development Fund of Shanxi Province under Grant No.YDZJSX2022B019Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities under Grant No.FRF-MP-20-37Interdisciplinary Research Project for Young Teachers of USTB(Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities)under Grant No.FRF-IDRY-21-005National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.62002026。
文摘The inertial navigation system(INS),which is frequently used in emergency rescue operations and other situations,has the benefits of not relying on infrastructure,high positioning frequency,and strong real-time performance.However,the intricate and unpredictable pedestrian motion patterns lead the INS localization error to significantly diverge with time.This paper aims to enhance the accuracy of zero-velocity interval(ZVI)detection and reduce the heading and altitude drift of foot-mounted INS via deep learning and equation constraint of dual feet.Aiming at the observational noise problem of low-cost inertial sensors,we utilize a denoising autoencoder to automatically eliminate the inherent noise.Aiming at the problem that inaccurate detection of the ZVI detection results in obvious displacement error,we propose a sample-level ZVI detection algorithm based on the U-Net neural network,which effectively solves the problem of mislabeling caused by sliding windows.Aiming at the problem that Zero-Velocity Update(ZUPT)cannot suppress heading and altitude error,we propose a bipedal INS method based on the equation constraint and ellipsoid constraint,which uses foot-to-foot distance as a new observation to correct heading and altitude error.We conduct extensive and well-designed experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.The experimental results indicate that the position error of our proposed method did not exceed 0.83% of the total traveled distance.
文摘This Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and fluxgate magnetometer technologies have been widely used in a variety of positioning and navigation applications. In this paper, a low cost solid state INS/GPS/Magnetometer integrated navigation system has been developed that incorporates measurements from an Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and fluxgate magnetometer (Mag.) to provide a reliable complete navigation solution at a high output rate. The body attitude estimates, especially the heading angle, are fundamental challenges in a navigation system. Therefore targeting accurate attitude estimation is considered a significant contribution to the overall navigation error. A better estimation of the body attitude estimates leads to more accurate position and velocity estimation. For that end, the aim of this research is to exploit the magnetometer and accelerometer data in the attitude estimation technique. In this paper, a Scaled Unscented Kalman Filter (SUKF) based on the quaternion concept is designed for the INS/GPS/Mag integrated navigation system under large attitude error conditions. Simulation and experimental results indicate a satisfactory performance of the newly developed model.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(60702003)~~
文摘The principle of the inertial navigation system(INS) with rotating inertial measurement unit (IMU) is analyzed. A new IMU is established to rotate round each axis in three directions. Then, the related error models for the designed system during rotating are deduced and the improved system is built. Finally, the performance simulation of the proposed system is provided. The simulation result indicates that the designed system can improve the accuracy of the roll and the pitch as well as heading by rotating three axes, thus guaranting the heading accuracy. Moreover, based on the principle of rotation at six different positions, such structure can carry out real-time calibration, and improve the system performance.
基金The National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)(No.2009CB724002)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.50975049)+3 种基金the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China(No.20110092110039)the Aviation Science Foundation(No.20090869008)the Six Peak Talents Foundation in Jiangsu Province(No.2008143)Program of Scientific Innovation Research of College Graduate in Jiangsu Province(No.CXLX_0101)
文摘Aiming at the problem of poor observability of measurement information in the loosely-coupled integration of the inertial navigation system (INS) and the wireless sensor network (WSN), this paper presents a tightly-coupled integration based on the Kalman filter (KF). When the WSN is available, the difference between the distances from the blind node(BN) to the reference nodes (RNs) measured by the INS and those measured by the WSN are used as measurement information for the KF due to its better observability and independence, which can effectively improve the accuracy of the KF. Simulations show that the proposed approach reduces the mean error of the position by about 50% compared with loosely-coupled integration, while the mean error of the velocity is a little higher than that of loosely-coupled integration.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41876222)。
文摘In view of the failure of GNSS signals,this paper proposes an INS/GNSS integrated navigation method based on the recurrent neural network(RNN).This proposed method utilizes the calculation principle of INS and the memory function of the RNN to estimate the errors of the INS,thereby obtaining a continuous,reliable and high-precision navigation solution.The performance of the proposed method is firstly demonstrated using an INS/GNSS simulation environment.Subsequently,an experimental test on boat is also conducted to validate the performance of the method.The results show a promising application prospect for RNN in the field of positioning for INS/GNSS integrated navigation in the absence of GNSS signal,as it outperforms extreme learning machine(ELM)and EKF by approximately 30%and 60%,respectively.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60902055)
文摘To improve the reliability and accuracy of the global po- sitioning system (GPS)/micro electromechanical system (MEMS)- inertial navigation system (INS) integrated navigation system, this paper proposes two different methods. Based on wavelet threshold denoising and functional coefficient autoregressive (FAR) model- ing, a combined data processing method is presented for MEMS inertial sensor, and GPS attitude information is also introduced to improve the estimation accuracy of MEMS inertial sensor errors. Then the positioning accuracy during GPS signal short outage is enhanced. To improve the positioning accuracy when a GPS signal is blocked for long time and solve the problem of the tra- ditional adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) method with poor dynamic adaptation and large calculation amount, a self-constructive ANFIS (SCANFIS) combined with the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed for MEMS-INS errors modeling and predicting. Experimental road test results validate the effi- ciency of the proposed methods.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60535010)
文摘A new nonlinear algorithm is proposed for strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS)/celestial navigation system (CNS)/global positioning system (GPS) integrated navigation systems. The algorithm employs a nonlinear system error model which can be modified by unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to give predictions of local filters. And these predictions can be fused by the federated Kalman filter. In the system error model, the rotation vector is introduced to denote vehicle's attitude and has less variables than the quaternion. Also, the UKF method is simplified to estimate the system error model, which can both lead to less calculation and reduce algorithm implement time. In the information fusion section, a modified federated Kalman filter is proposed to solve the singular covariance problem. Specifically, the new algorithm is applied to maneuvering vehicles, and simulation results show that this algorithm is more accurate than the linear integrated navigation algorithm.
基金Sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(60604011)
文摘To improve the precision of inertial navigation system(INS) during long time operation,the rotation modulated technique(RMT) was employed to modulate the errorr of the inertial sensors into periodically varied signals,and,as a result,to suppress the divergence of INS errors.The principle of the RMT was introduced and the error propagating functions were derived from the rotary navigation equation.Effects of the measurement error for the rotation angle of the platform on the system precision were analyzed.The simulation and experimental results show that the precision of INS was ① dramatically improved with the use of the RMT,and ② hardly reduced when the measurement error for the rotation angle was in arc-second level.The study results offer a theoretical basis for engineering design of rotary INS.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61503399).
文摘The dual-axis rotational inertial navigation system(INS)with dithered ring laser gyro(DRLG)is widely used in high precision navigation.The major inertial sensor errors such as drift errors of gyro and accelerometer can be averaged out,but the G-sensitive drifts of laser gyro cannot be averaged out by indexing.A 16-position rotational simulation experiment proves the G-sensitive drift will affect the long-term navigation error for the rotational INS quantitatively.The vibration coupling and asymmetric structure of the DRLG are the main errors.A new dithered mechanism and optimized DRLG is designed.The validity and efficiency of the optimized design are conformed by 1 g sinusoidal vibration experiments.An optimized inertial measurement unit(IMU)is formulated and measured experimentally.Laboratory and vehicle experimental results show that the divergence speed of longitude errors can be effectively slowed down in the optimized IMU.In long term independent navigation,the position accuracy of dual-axis rotational INS is improved close to 50%,and the G-sensitive drifts of laser gyro in the optimized IMU are less than 0.0002°/h.These results have important theoretical significance and practical value for improving the structural dynamic characteristics of DRLG INS,especially the highprecision inertial system.
文摘A method of improving the navigation accuracy of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is studied. The particular technique discussed involves the continuous rotation of gyros and accelerometers cluster about the vertical axis of the vehicle. Then the errors of these sensors will have periodic variation corresponding to components along the body frame. Under this condition, the modulated sensor errors produce reduced system errors. Theoretical analysis based on a new coordinate system defined as sensing frame and test results are presented, and they indicate the method attenuates the navigation errors brought by the gyros' random constant drift and the accelerometer's bias and their white noise compared to the conventional method.
基金This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40125013 &40376011)
文摘A marine INS/GPS adaptive navigation system is presented. GPS with two antenna providing vessel' s altitude is selected as the auxiliary system fusing with INS to improve the performance of the hybrid system. The Kalman filter is the most frequently used algorithm in the integrated navigation system, which is capable of estimating INS errors online based on the measured errors between INS and GPS. The standard Kalman filter (SKF) assumes that the statistics of the noise on each sensor are given. As long as the noise distributions do not change, the Kalman filter will give the optimal estimation. However GPS receiver will be disturbed easily and thus temporally changing measurement noise will join into the outputs of GPS, which will lead to performance degradation of the Kalman filter. Many researchers introduce fuzzy logic control method into innovation-based adaptive estimation adaptive Kalman filtering (IAE-AKF) algorithm, and accordingly propose various adaptive Kalman filters. However how to design the fuzzy logic controller is a very complicated problem still without a convincing solution. A novel IAE-AKF is proposed herein, which is based on the maximum likelihood criterion for the proper computation of the filter innovation covariance and hence of the filter gain. The approach is direct and simple without having to establish fuzzy inference rules. After having deduced the proposed IAEAKF algorithm theoretically in detail, the approach is tested by the simulation based on the system error model of the developed INS/GPS integrated marine navigation system. Simulation results show that the adaptive Kalman filter outperforms the SKF with higher accuracy, robustness and less computation. It is demonstra- ted that this proposed approach is a valid solution for the unknown changing measurement noise exited in the Kalman filter.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61722301)
文摘Strapdown inertial navigation system(SINS)/celestial navigation system(CNS)integrated navigation is widely used to achieve long-time and high-precision autonomous navigation for aircraft.In general,SINS/CNS integrated navigation can be divided into two integrated modes:loosely coupled integrated navigation and tightly coupled integrated navigation.Because the loosely coupled SINS/CNS integrated system is only available in the condition of at least three stars,the latter one is becoming a research hotspot.One major challenge of SINS/CNS integrated navigation is obtaining a high-precision horizon reference.To solve this problem,an innovative tightly coupled rotational SINS/CNS integrated navigation method is proposed.In this method,the rotational SINS error equation in the navigation frame is used as the state model,and the starlight vector and star altitude are used as measurements.Semi-physical simulations are conducted to test the performance of this integrated method.Results show that this tightly coupled rotational SINS/CNS method has the best navigation accuracy compared with SINS,rotational SINS,and traditional tightly coupled SINS/CNS integrated navigation method.
文摘The interest for land navigation has increased for the recent years. With the advent of the Global Position System (GPS) we have now the ability to determine the absolute position anywhere on the globe. The problem is that the GPS systems work well only in open environments with no overhead obstructions and they are subject to large unavoidable errors when the reception from some of the satellites are blocked. This occurs frequently in urban environments, forests and tunnels. GPS systems require at least four “visible” satellites to maintain a good position fix. In many situations in which higher level of accuracy is required, the navigation cannot be achieved by GPS alone. This paper discusses the design of a reliable multisensor fusion algorithm using GPS and Inertial Navigation System in order to decrease the implementation cost of such systems on land vehicles. The major contribution of this paper is in the definition of the possible developments and research axes in land navigation.