Odometer Aided SINS in-Motion Alignment Method Based on Backtracking Scheme for Large Misalignment Angles

In-motion alignment of Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems (SINS) without any geodetic-frame observations is one of the toughest challenges for odometer aided navigation system. It is difficult to obtain an accurate attitude within a short time using coarse alignment under intense maneuvering condition, so one of the main obstacles during in-motion alignment for SINS/OD is to estimate an accurate attitude during fine alignment process under large azimuth misalignment angle. However, most current in-motion alignment methods were based on linear error model. In this paper, an OD aided in-motion alignment method based on backtracking scheme for large misalignment angles is proposed. Three improvements were made as the following: (1) A continuous nonlinear 16-dimensional (16D) SINS/OD error model is derived. (2) We proposed a backtracking-based Extended Kalman filter (EKF) and (3) a strict reverse navigation method is utilized in the backward process. Experimental results illustrated that the proposed method can autonomously improve the estimated attitude accuracy under the condition of large misalignment angle.