IMU & GPS Sensors Integrated to

Antenna Drive Control Loop

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni

Consultant Engineer
Systems and Sensors
abassyouni@aol.com

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 1

Azimuth and Elevation Errors of Radar Antenna

Antenna’s Radar may suffer from poor accuracy in Azimuth and

Elevation angular motion due to External and Internal sources of
errors.

• External Error Sources

• Surface Deflections due to thermal effects and force of wind

• Disturbance of motion due to Gust and Wind
• Additional weights due to accumulated snow and dust

• Internal Error Sources

• Changes in the control loop parameters due to aging or misuse.

• Poor reliability due to undetected errors of HW and SW designs
or installation

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 2

Azimuth and Elevation Errors of Radar Antenna

These Sources are:

1. Forces OF WIND AND GHUST applied to the antenna

2. Fluctuating and systematic errors in the drive control
3. Environmental effects that may cause vibrations
4. Geometrical structure of the antenna, spacing of radiators,
5. Channels mismatch due to the errors of phase shifters output

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 3

Azimuth and Elevation Errors of Radar Antenna
We can model the beam Pointing Error as

δӨ = δӨΦ + δӨT + δӨa + δӨw

Where
δӨΦ pointing error due to phase shifters
δӨT Pointing error due to temperature effect
δӨa pointing error due to antenna structure
δӨw Pointing error due to forces of wind
Trades analysis and control techniques are developed
for these models

Today we focus only to model the wind effect

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 4

Modeling of Wind Applied to Antenna Surface

The force on the antenna due to wind with velocity V is given by

1
FD  CD AV 2
2
Where  is the static air density, CD is Drag Coefficient and A is the projected
antenna area.

This equation is valid for both steady and time-varying wind gusts. The wind
velocity V is composed of a mean velocity Vm and a gust component Vg.

V  Vm  Vg

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 5

Modeling of Wind Applied to Antenna Surface

The projected area A is related to the array face area A 0 by the azimuth
angle of the array relative to wind and the antenna tilt back angle by

A  A 0 cos(AZ ) cos(Tilt)

The antenna deflection  due to wind is proportional to force F, such that

we may write

  K cos(AZ ) V 2

The constant K depends on the antenna design and mechanical structure;

it is the transfer coefficient that relates the wind velocity to the deflection at
particular antenna azimuth angle .

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 6

Modeling of Wind Applied to Antenna Surface
For a rotating antenna with constant rotation rate Ω, we then have

(t )  K cos( t ) V  V (t )
2
m g

where t is time and is shown explicitly to emphasize the time varying

nature of the deflection due to wind variability and antenna rotation.

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 7

Controller Model for Disturbed Antenna
A proposed antenna controller consists of the estimator, the PI
controller, and the flexible mode controller.

The antenna state –space model(A,B,C) includes the disturbances v

and the measurement noise w

x  Ax  Bu  v
y  Cx  w
The disturbances (predominantly wind gusts) have covariance V. The
measurement noise has covariance W. It is assumed additionally that the
input and output noises are not correlated. This assumption is equivalent
to independence of their sources. Indeed, the measurement noise is
independent of the wind disturbances.

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 8

Controller Model for Disturbed Antenna
The purpose of the estimator is to evaluate the antenna dynamic
states using the rate input, u, and the encoder output, y, of the
antenna. The estimated state vector is denoted , and the error
between the actual encoder output and the estimated output is
defined as

  y  Cxˆ  y  yˆ
The estimated state is obtained from the following equation:

xˆ  Axˆ Bu  Ke

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 9

Controller Model for Disturbed Antenna
v w
u + y
+
Antenna +

u uf Flexible mode
x̂
+ Estimator
Controller
+
+

upI _
e
PI Controller +
Controller Modules
r +

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 10

 Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy

Uncertain dynamics may cause sudden errors that

decrease the Azimuth and Elevation accuracy

The System Engineer has to resolve the problem

applying advanced technology and creative ideas

Electronic sensors to determine forces acting on a body

* Accelerometers * Gyros (Angular Rate Sensors

Limitations that System Engineer has to overcome:

Inherent errors in position and velocity due to integration of sensor
error and sensor drift and Kalman Filter Latency

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 11

Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy
The IMU consists of three accelerometers and three
gyroscopes (gyros) so that accelerations along
specific axis and angular rotations can be measured.
From the IMU angular rotations and acceleration
along its axis are used to calculate roll, pitch and
yaw angles.

The IMU feeds its data into KF

GPS position and velocity are blended with the inertial data. Otherwise, if the
GPS data is not available, the system will operate without any GPS aiding.

The inertial navigator computes position, velocity and orientation of the IMU.

The Kalman filter estimates the errors in the inertial navigator along with IMU,
distance

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Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy
Advantage of Integrating IMU and GPS

GPS IMU

Position Angular Rate

Velocity Acceleration
Time Time
High Long term High short term
P,V accuracy P, V accuracy

Kalman Filter
Position
Velocity
High long term and Acceleration
short term accuracy Angular Rate
Time

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 13

 Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy

KF is built to estimate the

random process xk 1

xk 1  k xk  vk
zk  H k xk  wk

Standard Kalman Filter Loop

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 14

 Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy

Integrated IMU and GPS for Accurate Positioning

Output
Strap down Position
IMU INS
Processor

Error
GPS GPS Controller
Rx1 Rx2 Algorithm
Filter Correction Estimated Error

GPS Az
Measure Kalman Filter
Algorithm

GPS Observables

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Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy

System Accuracy Process

Difference between the position form the IMU and GPS is processed
In KF (typically @ 10Hz) to estimate the slowly growing position error
In the IMU.

Since this error is a function of Azimuth error (as modeled in the

differential equations in KF) , observing the inertial position errors
means the orientation errors and IMU sensor errors can also be
estimated.

sin  .cos  sin  .sin 

 Az  N  E  D   Azimuth
cos  cos 
N ,E ,D Orientation errors w r to North, East, and Down axis

 Azimuth Offset angle between IMU and GPS

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 16

 Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy
IMU& GPS integrated to Antenna Position Control Loop

External/Internal
Disturbance

Desired Actual
Azimuth Azimuth
Position Azimuth Antenna
Controller Drive System

IMU&GPS
Integrated
Algorithms

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 17

Improve the Azimuth and Elevation Accuracy

Factors Influence the Measurements Accuracy

IMU Accuracy
Inertial error sources can be divided into stationary errors like the
random constant part of the gyro drift, and on-stationary errors like
the accelerometer scale factor.

Kalman Filter
The estimation accuracy depends on the a priori information of the
system and measurement models, as well as the noise statistics.

A well-designed Kalman filter will attenuate the initial state errors, and
smooth the effects of system and measurement errors through the
averaging process.

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 18

 To Achieve Reliable and Repeatable positioning data
The ACU has the following operational modes:

• Shutdown (no power to motors, brakes set)

• Standby (motor power on, brakes set)

• Velocity (rate loop driving of axes from local handset)

• Encoder (drive so encoders equal commanded position)

• Autonomous (drive so bore-sight equals commanded position)

• Preset (same as Autonomous with limited velocity and acceleration)

• Stow (drive to stow position).

Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 19

 Questions ?

Thank You
Dr. Ahmed Bassyouni IEEE Meeting-Syracuse 20