Implementation of microcontroller-aided PC104 platform for multisensor integrated system

The GPS-aided MEMS-based inertial navigation system is a topic of current interest by many researches. The performance of such systems relies on not only the quality of the MEMS inertial sensors, or the quality of GPS measurements and the geometry of the satellite constellation, but also implementation of time synchronisation of GPS and INS sensors on the integration platforms. The pseudolite-based transceiver positioning technology known as Locata can potentially fill in the gaps in availability in difficult GPS environments or even GPS outages. Therefore integration of GPS, Locata and INS provides an attractive solution to realise an ideal seamless navigation system. In this paper, a microcontroller-aided PC104 platform for multisensor integration is implemented. The time synchronisation is designed in both analogue and digital domains to flexibly meet different accuracy requirements. In a 24-hour test, the platform has demonstrated a time synchronisation accuracy of 1ms without any data loss. This time synchronisation accuracy can satisfy the accuracy requirement of a MEMS-based integrated system for many applications. However, when a higher accuracy is required, the analogue-domain time synchronisation mode must be used. This paper addresses the system implementation aspects including hardware and software, as well as presenting an evaluation of its time synchronisation performance.