Research on laser Doppler velocimeter for vehicle self-contained inertial navigation system

An idea of using laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) to measure the velocity for the vehicle inertial navigation system was put forward. The principle of measuring its own velocity with laser Doppler technique was elaborated and reference-beam LDV was designed. Then Doppler signal was processed by tracking filter, frequency spectrum refinement and frequency spectrum correction algorithm. The result of theory and experiment showed that the reference-beam LDV solved the problem that dual-beam LDV cannot be used for measuring when the system was out of focus. Doppler signal was tracked so that signal-to-noise ratio was improved, and the accuracy of the system was enhanced by the technology of frequency spectrum refinement and correction. The measurement mean error was less than 1.5% in velocity range of 0–30 m/s.