Attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS) continue to improve in lock-step with technological advances. When aided by global positioning systems (GPS), AHRS can deliver more reliable information on heading, position, attitude and velocity on dynamic platforms.
The more economical attitude sensors use data from magnetometers, rate gyros and accelerometers to generate heading and attitude estimates, and they work best on platforms that move and accelerate relatively slowly. Higher speeds and rapid changes in direction or velocity can reduce the reliability of the estimates from lower-cost attitude sensors. Introducing GPS information to AHRS virtually eliminates this problem.
GPS Enhancement
Attitude inaccuracy is a significant contributor to errors in velocity measurement, but by comparing velocities reported by an onboard GPS to the attitude estimates and accelerometers in the AHRS, a more accurate estimate can be produced.
About AHRS
AHRS is a system of inertial sensors on three axes that generates real-time 3D orientation data on aircraft attitude (pitch, roll), heading (yaw) and flight dynamics, and sends it to aircraft systems like the weather radar antenna platform, flight controls and flight deck displays. AHRS are more reliable and accurate than traditional gyro-based instruments, as gravity and magnetic field reference vectors compensate for drift from gyroscope integration.
There are many applications for AHRS, including stabilization and control, correction and measurement, and navigation. Examples include cameras or antennae on a ship or a plane that need to be stable, imaging systems that need to point consistently in a particular direction, and of course the orientation and direction required for navigation purposes.
AHRS consist of MEMs gyroscopes, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and magnetometers on all three axes. These sensors combine with a processor build in to measure the attitude of any object in 3D space.
AHRS can be used in:
- Civil and military aerospace applications on rotary- and fixed-wing platforms, providing critical flight control data regarding an aircraft’s heading and attitude
- Airborne ground surveys of agricultural conditions, space instrumentation, missile testing
- Robotics research, camera stabilization and military gun-sight stabilization
- Automotive crash and rollover testing, ride handling, sports medicine, geological mapping pipeline telemetry or solar storm detection, and
- Undersea cable laying, buoy and current monitoring, magnetic field measurements.
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