Accelerometer based north finding system

This paper describes a system for finding true north with a rotating linear accelerometer. Such a north finding system utilizes the Coriolis effect to detect the horizontal component of the Earth's spin rate along with specific force. Besides the introduction to its operation principle illustrated by a simplified mathematical model, the signal processing algorithm to deal with the accelerometer output is also presented. After that, the implementation scheme including both its mechanical and electronic sub-system is introduced. Following an accuracy analysis based on specifications of the practical systems and devices, a summary is outlined to describe the performance of such a nongyroscopic northfinder.