Sensor Fusion between a Synthetic Attitude and Heading Reference System and GPS

Sensor fusion deals with the merging of several signals into one, ex-tracting a better and more reliable result. Traditionally the Kalmanfilter is used for this purpose and the aircraft navigation has benefitedtremendously from its use. This thesis considers the merge of two nav-igation systems, the GPS positioning system and the Saab developedSynthetic Attitude and Heading Reference System (SAHRS). The pur-pose is to find a model for such a fusion and to investigate whetherthe fusion will improve the overall navigation performance. The non-linear nature of the navigation equations will lead to the use of theextended Kalman filter and the model is evaluated against both simu-lated and real data. The results show that this strategy indeed worksbut problems will arise when the GPS signal falls away.