pva-g

The acronym pva-g is inspired by the main quantities in navigation and airborne or shipborne gravimetry that are to be determined:

• position (latitude / longitude / height),
• velocity (3-D, e.g. in north / east / up),
• attitude (roll / pitch / heading), and
• gravity (either scalar or 3-D, including deflections).

In strapdown navigation and strapdown gravimetry, these quantities are commonly determined by combining a strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) with aiding sensors, as e.g. GNSS. The available sensors need to be combined in an stochastically optimal way in order to produce the best estimates of pva-g. The process of algorithmically combining such a set of sensors is commonly denoted as sensor fusion.

Several applications focus on different subsets of these quantities. A few examples: [table id=1 /][In the above table, “●” denotes a strong emphasis, while “○” denotes a quantity of lower importance.]

So, it’s basically all about pva-g!