Semi-analytical assessment of the relative accuracy of the GNSS/INS in railway track irregularity measurements

An aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) is increasingly exploited in precise engineering surveying, such as railway track irregularity measurement, where a high relative measurement accuracy rather than absolute accuracy is emphasized. However, how to evaluate the relative measurement accuracy of the aided INS has rarely been studied. We address this problem with a semi-analytical method to analyze the relative measurement error propagation of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and INS integrated system, specifically for the railway track irregularity measurement application. The GNSS/INS integration in this application is simplified as a linear time-invariant stochastic system driven only by white Gaussian noise, and an analytical solution for the navigation errors in the Laplace domain is obtained by analyzing the resulting steady-state Kalman filter. Then, a time series of the error is obtained through a subsequent Monte Carlo simulation based on the derived error propagation model. The proposed analysis method is then validated through data simulation and field tests. The results indicate that a 1 mm accuracy in measuring the track irregularity is achievable for the GNSS/INS integrated system. Meanwhile, the influences of the dominant inertial sensor errors on the final measurement accuracy are analyzed quantitatively and discussed comprehensively.