Impact of Time Synchronization Accuracy in Integrated Navigation Systems

Sammanfattning: Global Navigation Satellite System/Inertial Measurement Unit (GNSS/IMU) Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) integrate the positive features of GNSS and IMU for optimal navigation guidance in high accuracy outdoor navigation systems, for example using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) techniques. Time synchronization of IMU data with precise GNSS based time is necessary to accurately synchronize the two systems. This must be done in real-time for time sensitive navigation applications such as autonomous vehicles. The research is done in two parts. The first part is the simulation of inaccurate time-stamping in a single axis of nonlinear input data in a gyroscope and an accelerometer, to obtain the timing error value that is tolerable by a high accuracy GNSS/INS system. The second part is the creation of a real-time algorithm using an STM32 embedded system enabled with FreeRTOS real-time kernel for a GNSS receiver and antenna, along with an IMU sensor. A comparative analysis of the time synchronized system and an unsynchronized system is done based on the errors produced using gyroscope and accelerometer readings along a single axis from the IMU sensor, by conducting static and rotational tests on a revolving chair.The simulation concludes that a high accuracy GNSS/INS system can tolerate a timing error of up to 1 millisecond. The real-time solution provides IMU data paired with updated GNSS based time-stamps every 5 milliseconds. The timing jitter is reduced to a range of ±1 millisecond. Analysis of final angular rotation error and final position error from gyroscope and accelerometer readings respectively, indicate that the real-time algorithm produces a reduction in errors when the system is static, but there is no statistical evidence showing the reduction of errors from the results of the rotational tests.