An approach to benchmarking of loosely coupled low-cost navigation systems

New solutions to the navigation problem related to low-cost integrated navigation systems (INS) are often published. Since these new solutions are generally compared with ad hoc mathematical models that are not fully exposed, one cannot be sure of the relative improvements. In this work, complete mathematical model for a low-cost INS is suggested to be used as a benchmarking. As far as the authors’ knowledge, a benchmarking for low-cost INS has not been previously reported. Shown INS comprises a strapdown inertial navigation system, loosely coupled to a GPS receiver. The INS mathematical model is based upon classical navigation equations and classical sensor models, both from recognized authors. The algorithm that details the INS operation is also presented. The benchmarking is provided as an open-source toolbox for MATLAB. Additionally, this work can be taken as a starting point for new practitioners in the INS field. To validate the INS mathematical model, real-world data sets from three different Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMU) and a GPS receiver are processed. It is observed that obtained RMS errors from the three INS are coherent with the quality of corresponding MEMS IMU. This confirms that the proposed benchmarking is a suitable tool to evaluate objectively new solutions to low-cost INS.