On Inertial Navigation and Attitude Initialization in Polar Areas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the traditional Earth-frame mechanization effectively addresses the singularity issues in inertial navigation and attitude initialization near the poles, challenging the focus on alternative frames.

Contribution

It shows that the common Earth-frame mechanization is sufficient for polar navigation, simplifying approaches compared to more complex frame transformations.

Findings

Simulation confirms the singularity problem in local level frames near poles.

Earth-frame mechanization effectively handles polar navigation challenges.

Traditional Earth-frame approach is viable for polar inertial navigation.

Abstract

Inertial navigation and attitude initialization in polar areas become a hot topic in recent years in the navigation community, as the widely-used navigation mechanization of the local level frame encounters the inherent singularity when the latitude approaches 90 degrees. Great endeavors have been devoted to devising novel navigation mechanizations such as the grid or transversal frames. This paper highlights the fact that the common Earth-frame mechanization is sufficiently good to well handle the singularity problem in polar areas. Simulation results are reported to demonstrate the singularity problem and the effectiveness of the Earth-frame mechanization.