Launchpad: Dynamic testing before flight

GNSS/INS Integration Testing

Dynamic testing before flight

The CAST-3000 simulator from CAST Navigation.

The CAST-3000 fully supports integration testing of GNSS/INS navigation systems where the inertial sensor and GNSS receiver are either tightly or ultra-tightly coupled. It produces GPS RF signals coincident with simulated IMU sensor data that provide dynamic testing in the laboratory environment for military and government applications.

The proprietary laboratory test interfaces to inertial navigation products of both Honeywell and Northrop Grumman are incorporated with high-performance fighter aircraft and munition dynamics. The CAST-3000 simulates dynamics for both the GNSS and INS portions of EGI (embedded GNSS-inertial navigation) systems in a coordinated and coherent way so that the GNSS and INS navigation solutions do not diverge, and the blended solution is precisely what it would be in the real world. This is accomplished by simulating both the GNSS and INS inputs.

The military and government labs that the CAST-3000 supports have strict requirements for dynamic ground testing of navigation systems before flight testing. The simulator must explore performance of both GNSS and INS aspects of the EGI for modeling IMU drift rates in GPS jamming environments.

CAST-3000 Features

• Strapdown IMU measurement data synchronized with GPS RF data provided to the navigation system under test.
• Mature avionic sensor simulation barometric altimeter model.
• High-rate inertial measurements with very high degree of fidelity to support testing of high performance coupled systems.
• Simulates sensors to provide the fully coordinated, dynamic vertical channel aiding needed to maintain Kalman filter stability of the navigation system. Includes years of development and refinement of the precise GNSS/INS synchronization capability needed for simulation of aircraft dynamics.
• A dynamic, precisely coordinated simulation of numerous navigation signals to a tightly coupled or ultra-tightly coupled GNSS/INS navigation system.

CAST Navigation, www.castnav.com