New low cost avionics with INS/GPS for a variety of vehicles

Development of a new vehicle avionics suite is described, including integration of a low-cost, tightly-coupled integrated Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS) to support vehicle guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C). The new IMGTS avionics product makes maximum use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) electronics, for low cost, and standard Versa Module European (VME) interfaces, for modularity and ease of upgrade/adaptability. This paper summarizes the avionics product development, integration, and test. The potential user requirements and their avionics requirements are described. History and rationale for the avionics development is outlined, and the overall avionics design is then discussed in detail, along with key performance/functional characteristics. Results and "lessons learned" from integration and testing are described. Finally, plans are presented for a September 1997 launch, in which the new avionics will be carried as a "piggy back" payload on a Hera mission. The new CAC IMGTS avionics suite features low cost, application flexibility, and a high degree of COTS/MOTS content. Employing the low-cost MOTS M-MIGITS/sup TM/ product to support GN&C provides the additional benefit of high accuracy. The overall approach is viewed as generally applicable to suborbital and orbital launch vehicles, as well as many other types of systems which require a GN&C avionics function.