Gyro north and latitude finder

Abstract

Gyro North and Latitude Finder is a strapdown device for determination of an initial latitude and azimuth or heading with respect to a true north. In this article we present a new method for latitude determination for a fixed base. The method is based on strapdown inertial technology. The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is used for latitude and azimuth determination. The IMU is composed of accelerometers, gyroscopes and a signal processing circuit. The error models of the latitude determination method and gyrocompassing mode are developed. It is discussed that the errors of latitude determination and gyrocompassing mode depend on the errors of gyroscopes and accelerometers. The experiments have demonstrated that the application of this method provides for latitude determination. The IMU experiments were conducted with ring laser gyroscopes and pendulum accelerometers.