Aerodynamic flight simulation in inertial quality

The design of an aerodynamic flight trajectory generation tool for the evaluation of navigation methods in simulation is discussed. The generated trajectory data consists of position, velocity, orientation as well as specific force and angular rate over time. Specific force and angular rate can directly be used as simulated measurements of an ideal (error-free) non-integrating IMU or can be converted into velocity and orientation increments as simulated output of an ideal integrating IMU. Furthermore, aircraft control input and local wind vector data is added for use in the evaluation of model-aided navigation algorithms. The impact of the trajectory generation tool is increased through automated generation of aerodynamic flight paths by a practical airplane guidance and control algorithm using 3D waypoints. The presented control algorithm is not suitable for use in cases where measurement and model errors exist. However, the effort of tuning is minimized. Furthermore, it allows a good approach to Monte Carlo simulation (Monte Carlo evaluation, MCE) in navigation system performance analysis and verification with the possibility to introduce random variations in the generated true motion trajectory.