Coarse Alignment for Marine SINS Using Gravity

in the Inertial Frame as a Reference

Dongqing Gu, Naser El-Sheimy, Taher Hassan, Zainab Syed
Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB CANADA

Abstract-Marine Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems
(SINS) inevitably experience disturbing motion, even if the
carrier ship is moored. The method of ground coarse
alignment, which is based on the assumption that SINS is on a
stationary carrier with limited vibration, therefore cannot be
used to perform the marine SINS coarse alignment. In this
paper, a novel method using the gravity in the inertial frame as
a reference is investigated for marine SINS alignment. Its
algorithmic principle is described in details. The results
obtained from both simulation and turntable-test data show
that the attitude determined by this novel method can meet the
accuracy requirement of coarse alignment and it can be used
as input for fine alignment.
I. INTRODUCTION
The main objective of the initial alignment for a
Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS) is to
determine the system’s initial attitude. Normally, the initial
alignment process consists of two steps - coarse and fine
alignments. The purpose of coarse alignment is to provide
an initial attitude for the fine alignment. The accuracy of the
coarse alignment should be within a few degrees so that the
linearization of the SINS mechanization equations can be
accomplished and consequently, a standard Kalman filter
can be implemented for the fine alignment.
In static ground coarse alignment, the system attitude can
be determined directly by using the known gravity and
Earth rate signals in the local level frame and the
measurements obtained by using accelerometers and gyros,
given that the SINS is on a stationary base with limited
vibration [1, 2]. However, marine SINS has to withstand
random movements [3], which may be violent, such as
ship’s pitch and roll, even if the ship is moored. Static
ground coarse alignment techniques, henceforth, cannot be
used for marine SINS, because the gyros’ measurements
will include high rotational values (several orders of
magnitude greater than the Earth’s rotation rate) resulting
from the ship’s pitch and roll. Therefore, a feasible coarse
alignment solution for marine SINS would avoid the direct
use of the Earth rate in the local level frame. Considering
the projection of the gravity in the inertial frame defines a
cone whose main axis is the rotational axis of the Earth. A
new coarse alignment method for the marine SINS, using
the gravity in the inertial frame as a reference, is presented
in this paper.
The coordinate frames used in this paper are defined in
Section 2. In Section 3, the algorithmic principle for the
coarse alignment is presented. The calculation of the
parameters used in coarse alignment is described in Section
4. The results from both simulation and turntable test are
illustrated in Section 5. Finally, the conclusion is presented
in Section 6.
II. COORDINATE FRAME DEFINITIONS
The coordinate frames used in this paper are defined as
follows:
1) The e frame is the Earth-fixed coordinate frame. The
ze axis is parallel to the Earth’s rotation axis and the xe
axis is in the equatorial plane and points to the meridian of
the ship initial position. The ye axis completes the
right-handed coordinate system.
2) The i frame is the non-rotating inertial coordinate
frame. It is formed by fixing the e frame at the beginning of
the coarse alignment in the inertial space.
3) The n frame is the navigation coordinate frame which
is the local level coordinate frame. The xn axis points to
East, the yn axis points to North and the zn axis points
to the zenith.
4) The b frame is the ship body coordinate frame. The
xb axis is parallel to the ship lateral axis and points to the
right. The yb axis is parallel to the ship longitudinal axis
and points to the forward. The zb axis is parallel to the
ship vertical axis and points upward.
5) The ib frame is the body inertial coordinate frame. It
is formed by fixing the b frame at the beginning of the
coarse alignment in the inertial space.
The above mentioned frames at the start of the coarse
alignment are shown in Fig. 1.

1-4244-1537-3/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 961

 ship rocking, and a Db is the disturbing acceleration. If VDib
can be ignored (because it is much smaller than the velocity
caused by the gravity), (2) can be simplified as follows:
tk
V fib (t k ) − VLA
ib
(tk ) = −∫ g ib dt
t0
tk (3)
= − ∫ C iib g i dt
t0
tk
= −C iib ∫ g i dt
t0

where gi is the gravity vector in the i frame.

The following definitions can be made:
V ib (tk ) = V fib (t k ) − VLA
ib
(tk ) (4)
tk
V (tk ) = − ∫ g dt
i i (5)
t0

Fig. 1. Coordinate frames. Substituting (4) and (5) in (3), the following equations
can be obtained:
III. ALGORITHMIC PRINCIPLE FOR COARSE ALIGNMENT ( )
V ib t k1 = C iibV i t k1 ( ) (6)

The attitude matrix, which relates the body frame to the

ib
V k2 (t ) = C
k2
ib
i V (t )
i
(7)
computational navigation frame, could be described as where tk2 is the end time of coarse alignment, and
follows: i
t0 < tk1 < tk 2 ; V b can be calculated by the output of the
C bn (t ) = C enCie (t )Ciib C bib (t ) (1)
gyros and accelerometers as will be described in the next
where C bib (t ) is the rotation matrix of the body frame b section; V i (t k ) is as follows:
relative to the reference frame ib and can be calculated using  g cos L 
the gyro output as described in the next section; Cen and  sin ωie ∆t k 
ωie
 
Cie (t ) are as follows: g cos L (8)
V i (t k ) =  (1 − cos ωie∆tk )
 0 1 0   ωie 
 
C = − sin L 0 cos L 
n 

∆t k g sin L

e  
 cos L 0 sin L   
From Equations (6) and (7), Ciib could be calculated by
 cos ωie (t − t0 ) sin ωie (t − t0 ) 0 
C i (t ) = − sin ωie (t − t0 ) cos ωie (t − t0 ) 0 
e the following equation:
−1
   
 0 0 1 
 ( )
V i T t k1   V ib T t k1 ( )
where L is latitude; ωie is the Earth rotation rate; t 0 is the    
start time of the coarse alignment.
Ciib =  ( )
V i T t k2 •
  V ib T
t k2 ( )
 T  T
The integration of the accelerometer’s measured specific
force projected in the body inertial frame can be described  ( ) ( )   
i
( ) ( )
 V i t k1 × V i tk2     V b t k1 × V b tk2  
i
 
as follows: (9)
tk By substituting C ii calculated by (9) in (1) and the
V fib (t k ) = ∫ C bib f b dt b
t0
tk tk
initial attitude matrix Cbn can be determined at the end of
= − ∫ C bib g bdt + ∫ C bib a LA
b
dt (2) the coarse alignment.
t0 t0
tk
+ ∫ C bib a Db dt
t0
tk IV. PARAMETER CALCULATION FOR COARSE ALIGNMENT
= − ∫ g ib dt + VLA
ib
+ VDib
t0
t In the coarse alignment described in Section 3, C bib (t )
∫
where g is the gravity vector; VLAib = k C bib a LA dt is the
b

and V ib (t ) should be calculated in real time. This is

t0

induced velocity due to the lever-arm and can be calculated

using the known lever-arm and the gyro output as described described in this section.
The updating algorithm for C bib (t ) can be constructed as
in the next section, a LAb
is the lever-arm acceleration;
t follows using the product chain rule:
VDib = ∫ C bib a Db dt is the disturbing velocity caused by the
k
(t )
t0 C bib (t k ) = C bib (t k −1 )C bb (tk −)1
k
(10)

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 (t )
where, C bib0 (t 0 ) = I ; C bb (tk −)1 is a direction cosine matrix, ∆Vscul b
(tk ) is the sculling compensation term; ∆Vi ( i = 1,2 )
k

which represents the rotation of the b frame relative to the is the velocity increment output by accelerometers in the
inertial frame from its orientation at time t k −1 to its t k −1 + (i − 1)⋅ h to t k −1 + i ⋅ h interval, and h is the sample
period for accelerometers.
orientation at time t k , and can be calculated as follows [4]: According to (4), V i (t k ) can be calculated using
b

(t ) sin Φ k V fi (t k ) , which is estimated by (15) to (19), and VLA (tk ) ,

(Φk ×)
i
C bb (tkk −)1 =I+
b b

Φk which is determined by (13) and (14).

(11)
1 − cosΦ k
+ (Φk ×)(Φk ×) V. SIMULATION AND T URNTABLE TEST
Φ k2
where Φk is the rotation vector representing the frame A. Simulation
b(t k ) attitude relative to the same frame b(t k −1 ) at time To test the developed technique a simulation and
turntable test were conducted in the multi-sensor lab, the
t k . The rotation vector Φk can be calculated as follows University of Calgary. In the simulation, the ship is
using the two-sample algorithm [5]: assumed to be on the berth and is rocked by the surf. The
2
2 roll, pitch and heading resulting from the ship’s rocking are
Φk = ∑ θi + θ1 × θ2 (12) described as follows:
i =1 3
 2π π (20)
where θi ( i = 1,2 ) is the angular increment output by the ψ = 30° + 5° cos t + 
 7 3
gyros in the t k −1 + (i − 1) ⋅ h to t k −1 + i ⋅ h interval, and h is
 2π π (21)
the sample period for the gyros. θ = 7° cos t + 
 5 4
According to the definition of the induced velocity due to
the lever-arm below (2), the lever-arm velocity VLAib (tk ) can  2π π (22)
γ = 10° cos t + 
 6 7
be calculated as follows:
where ψ is heading, θ is pitch and γ is roll. The
[
VLAib (t k ) = Cbib (t k ) ωibb (t k ) × r b ]
(13)
velocity caused by heave, surge and sway is as follows:
where Cbib (tk ) can be determined using equations (10) to
VDi = ADi ωDi cos(ωDi t + ϕ Di ) (23)
(12); r b is the known lever arm projected in the b frame;
where i = x, y , z ; ADx = 0.02m , AD y = 0.03m ,
ωibb (t k ) is the body angular rate and it can be calculated as
follows: ADz = 0.3m ; ω D = 2π , TDx = 7s , TDy = 6s , TDz = 8s ; ϕ Di
3θ − θ
i
TDi
ωibb (t k ) = 2 1 (14)
2h obeys the uniform distribution on the interval [0,2π ] . The
The digital integration for V fib (t k ) can be formulated as velocity caused by the high-frequency vibration is described
follows: as:
ADH i
V fib (t k ) = V fib (tk −1 ) + ∫ C bib f b dt cos(2πf DHi + ϕ DH i )
tk
VDH i = (24)
t k −1 (15) 2πf DHi
≈ V fib (tk −1 ) + C (tk −1 )∆V fb (t k )
ib
b
where i = x, y , z ; ADH = 4.2 g , ADH = 3.8 g , ADH = 4 g ;
tk
[f ]
x z

∆V fb (t k ) = ∫ + θ (t ) × f b dt
y
b (16)
t k −1 f DH x = 300Hz , f DH y = 250Hz , f DH z = 400Hz ; ϕ DHi obeys
V (t 0 ) = 0 ; θ (t ) =
tk
the uniform distribution on the interval [0,2π ] .
where
∫ is the angular
ib b
f ω dτ
ib
t k −1
In the simulation, an inertial measurement unit (IMU)
increment in the t k −1 to t k interval; ∆V fb (t k ) is the body with the following specification is used:
frame integrated specific force increment and it can be ƒ Gyros bias = 0.01deg/h
calculated as follows [6]: ƒ Accelerometers bias is 1.0e-4g
2 ƒ Scale factor error of the accelerometer is 50 ppm
∆V fb (t k ) = ∑ ∆Vi + ∆Vrotb (t k ) + ∆Vscul
b
(tk ) (17)
and
i =1
ƒ Sensors mounting misalignment is 20 arcsec.
1 2
  2

∆Vrotb (t k ) = ∑ θi  × ∑ ∆Vi  (18) The coarse alignment lasts 120 s. The values of t k and
2 i=1   i =1 
1

t k2 in (9) are set to 50 s and 120 s respectively. The

∆Vscul
b
(tk ) = 2 [∆V1 × θ2 + θ1 × ∆V2 ] (19) simulation for the coarse alignment runs 50 times. The roll,
3
pitch and heading errors at the end of the coarse alignments
where ∆Vrot b
(tk ) is the velocity rotation compensation term; are shown in Fig. 2 and their statistics are listed in Table I.
From Fig. 2 and Table 1, it is clear that the attitude errors of

963
the coarse alignment are less than 2 degrees and hence
fulfill the requirement for the fine alignment. The
simulation results henceforth show that the attitude
calculated by the coarse alignment algorithm presented in
this paper can be used as the initial attitude for the fine
alignment.

Fig. 2. Alignment results of the 50 simulations.

TABLE I
STATISTICS FOR SIMULATION RESULT
Fig. 3. IMU and turntable.
Roll error Pitch error Heading error
(deg) (deg) (deg) Before the turntable test for the coarse alignment, the
Mean -0.02232 0.03299 -0.1765 IMU (Honeywell HG770) operates for ten minutes to
STD 0.00420 0.00319 0.8520
Max. -0.01549 0.04039 1.6980
perform initial alignment using its navigation software.
Min. -0.03003 0.02602 -1.6520 During the turntable test, the roll, pitch and heading
calculated by the IMU’s navigation software are used as a
B. Turntable Test reference (i.e. true values) to check the result of the coarse
A two-axis turntable test is performed to validate the alignment method presented in this paper.
performance of the coarse alignment algorithm presented in The turntable test for the coarse alignment lasts 120 s.
this paper. This two-axis turntable can rotate along its The turntable performs the sinusoidal oscillation along its
vertical axis under the motor drive, and can rotate along its vertical axis under the motor drive. The oscillation period is
latitudinal axis under the manual drive. A navigation grade 12 s and its magnitude is 12 degrees. Additionally, the
IMU, HG770 by Honeywell, is used for the test. The IMU turntable is manually vibrated arbitrarily along its
mounted on the turntable is shown in Fig. 3. latitudinal axis. Since there is a lever arm between the IMU
and the turntable rotation axes, the IMU experiences
velocity due to this lever-arm. However, this velocity is not
calculated by the lever-arm velocity compensation
algorithm, instead it is considered as a disturbing velocity
experienced by the IMU. During the turntable test, the roll,
pitch and heading are shown in Fig. 4 and the disturbing
velocity is shown in Fig. 5.
Fifty coarse alignments are performed based on the data
of the 120 s turntable test. The start time t 0 of each coarse
alignment is picked up from 0 s to 20 s at random, and each
coarse alignment lasts 100 s. The roll, pitch and heading at
the end of each coarse alignment are shown in Fig. 6. It
shows that the roll, pitch and heading at the end of each
coarse alignment are arbitrary, so the effect of different
attitudes on coarse alignment accuracy can be checked by
these fifty runs. For each coarse alignment, t k and t k in
1 2

(9) are set as 50 s and 100 s respectively. The roll, pitch and
heading errors are shown in Fig. 7, and their statistics are

964
summarized in Table II. Fig. 7 and Table II, clearly
indicates that the attitude errors of the coarse alignment are
less than 2 degrees and hence fulfill the requirement for the
fine alignment. The results of the turntable test henceforth
show that the attitude calculated by the coarse alignment
algorithm presented in this paper can be used as the initial
attitude for the fine alignment.

Fig. 7. Attitude errors of the 50 coarse alignments.

TABLE II
STATISTICS FOR TURNTABLE TEST RESULT

Roll error Pitch error Heading error

(deg) (deg) (deg)
Mean -0.2590 -0.1000 0.0991
STD 0.5746 0.1981 0.2274
Max. 1.1430 0.4519 0.4887
Min. -1.2160 -0.5264 -0.4478

Fig. 4. Attitude angles.

VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Marine SINS are prone to violent rocking, even if the

ship was moored. As a result, the method for static ground
coarse alignment cannot be used. This paper presents a
novel method for marine SINS coarse alignment. This
method uses the gravity in the inertial frame rather than in
the Earth frame as a reference. The results of the simulation
and turntable test indicate that novel method investigated in
this paper is effective for coarse alignment in a
non-stationary environment.

REFERENCES

[1] Jiang Y F. Error Analysis of Analytic Coarse Alignment Methods.

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334-337.
[2] Schimelevich L. and R. Naor. New Approach to Coarse Alignment.
Position Location and Navigation Symposium. Atlanta, GA, USA.
1996: 324-327.
[3] El-Hawary, The Ocean Engineering Handbook, CRC Press LLC,
2000 NW, Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431, 2001.
[4] Savage P G. Strapdown Inertial Navigation System Algorithm
Design, Part 1: Attitude Algorithms. AIAA Journal of Guidance,
Control and Dynamics, 1998, 21(1): 19-28.
[5] Miller R B. A New Strapdown Attitude Algorithm. AIAA Journal of
Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 1983, 6(4): 287-291.
[6] Savage P G. Strapdown Inertial Navigation System Algorithm
Design, Part 2: Velocity and Position Algorithms. AIAA Journal of
Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 1998, 21(2): 208-221.

Fig. 6. Attitude angles at the end of the 50 coarse alignments.

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