A modular device,
system and associated method, used to enhance the quality and output speed of any generic GPS engine is provided. The modular device comprises an inertial subsystem based on a
solid state
gyroscope having a plurality of accelerometers and a plurality of angular rate sensors designed to measure
linear acceleration and rotation rates around a plurality of axes. The modular inertial device may be placed in the
data stream between a standard
GPS receiver and a guidance device to enhance the accuracy and increase the frequency of positional solutions. Thus, the modular inertial device accepts standard GPS NMEA input messages from the source
GPS receiver, corrects and enhances the
GPS data using computed internal roll and
pitch information, and produces an improved, more accurate, NMEA format GPS output at preferably 2 times the positional
solution rate using GPS alone. The positional solution frequency using the present invention may increase to as much as 5 times that obtained using GPS alone. Moreover, the modular inertial device may assist when the GPS
signal is lost for various reasons. If used without GPS, the modular inertial device may be used to define, and adjust, a vehicle's orientation on a relative basis. The modular inertial device and architecturally partitioned
system incorporated into an existing GPS
system may be applied to navigation generally, including high-precision land-based
vehicle positioning,
aerial photography,
crop dusting, and
sonar depth mapping to name a few applications.