A Ship GPS/DR Integrated Navigation System

The development of the global economy stimulates the exploitation of the ocean. A precise and stable ship navigation system is very important for people to explore the ocean. Dead reckoning (DR) system is a frequently used navigation system for sailing in the ocean. It can provide precise short term navigation information but the error of DR system can accumulate over time without limitation. GPS can be used for localization and navigation in outside environment. Although the SA policy was removed the accuracy of GPS for civilian use is still big. But the errors of GPS are bounded. Since the complementarity of DR and GPS system the integrated GPS/DR system can provide good navigation results. In this paper a new Kalman filter based DR/GPS data fusion method is proposed. This method is designed based on the characteristic of the GPS receiver. By using this data fusion method the cheap GPS receiver can cooperate with DR system to provide precise navigation information for ships. Simulation is conducted to validate the proposed fusion method. The good result shows the potential of this fusion method for the ship navigation.