Unique IRS (Inertial reference System), for safety critical applications, ITAR-FREE and based on high performance Fiber Optic Gyroscope (FOG)

Abstract

ARGO 4000 is the outcome of three years of design and development effort carried out with the objective to realize the world smallest IRS (Inertial Reference System) certified by EASA with pending ETSO-c201, capable to provide high accuracy inertial navigation data in the most challenging environmental conditions applicable to fixed and rotary wing aircrafts and verified by means of the DO-160 standard qualification procedures. Such work has been partially financed by European Union H2020 SME innovation funds.ARGO 4000 architecture integrates a sensor block based on FOG’s (Fiber Optic Gyros) completely design and manufactured in-house using a proprietary technology, and on best-in-class Quartz accelerometers. The sensors are controlled by an extremely compact electronics compliant with DO-254, on which a DO-178C software executes the navigation algorithms to provide better than 1 NM/hr CEP (Circular Error Probable) and 0.05° heading accuracies. External GNSS and Air Data sensors can be interfaced through serial or ARINC-429 buses for aiding purposes. The architecture embeds a provision for extending the interface capabilities to further devices and communication standards (such as MIL-STD-1553) by means of a connecting bridge to an add-on-module, that can be customized with respect the specific platform-dependent integration requirements.ARGO 4000 development went through and extensive phase of simulation and experimental verification of many system aspects, fine tuning them to reach targeted performance and reliability.ARGO 4000 includes a sophisticated motion detection algorithm to improve the accuracy when aircraft is on ground and an IFA (In Flight Alignment) capability to manage emergency power switch off/switch on conditions during flight.ARGO 4000 is a dual-use, ITAR-free product, highly compact (4.1 kg, 3.1 liter) characterized by the best accuracy over weight and size ratio in the worldwide scenario.