Accelerometer based alignment transfer (ABAT)

Abstract

The authors present a novel alignment transfer method which uses only accelerometer measurements in the gravitational field. The TRIAD (three-axis attitude development) algorithm is reformulated to use two pairs of gravitational measurements instead of star observations to achieve three-axis attitude determination. A major benefit of the ABAT method is the freedom to choose missile inertial measurement unit gyroscopes based solely on in-flight considerations. An additional benefit is the ability to update the alignment transfer by simply making new measurements of gravity and reprocessing the measurements taken before erection. The proposed alignment transfer method eliminates time to complete alignment transfer from the major contributors of the alignment error. Algorithm development, error analysis, and laboratory results are provided.<>