A novel laser Doppler velocimeter and its integrated navigation system with strapdown inertial navigation

In order to suppress the error accumulation effect of inertial navigation system (INS), an idea of building an integrated navigation system using a laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) together with strapdown inertial navigation (SIN) is proposed. The basic principle of LDV is expounded while a novel LDV with advanced optical structure is designed based on the split and reuse technique, and the process of dead reckoning using an integrated system which consists of LDV and SIN is discussed detailedly. The results of theory and experiment show that: the split and reuse type LDV has great advantages of high accuracy and signal-to-noise ratio, which has greatly enhanced the position accuracy of the navigation system. The position error has been decreased from 1166 m in 2 h with pure SIN to 20 m in 2 h with the integrated system.