Development and testing of platform-based aviation gravity instrument

Abstract

Taking a certain type of domestically produced aviation gravity meter as an example, this paper introduces the working principle, equipment composition, and field performance testing methods of the three-axis inertial stabilizer platform aviation gravimeter. Through error model analysis, it is pointed out that high-precision horizontal attitude holding is one of the key factors to further improve the accuracy of aviation gravity measurement. A rotation combination calibration method under inertial stabilization conditions combined with Kalman filter error estimation is established to improve the efficiency of field implementation while maintaining the calibration accuracy of inertial components. In addition, based on the characteristics of aviation gravity measurement, a set of instrument performance evaluation methods including static accuracy measurement and dynamic accuracy testing before formal field operation is summarized. The test results show that the static accuracy of this type of aviation gravimeter reaches 0.14×10−5 m/s2, the dynamic internal consistency is better than 0.63×10−5 m/s2, and the system difference is better than 0.23×10−5 m/s2, reaching the level of high-end foreign aviation gravimeters. In the future, with further improvement of instrument and differential GNSS accuracy, its application in the field of seismic science will be expanded.

Keywords

• aircraft gravity measurement
• three-axis inertial stabilization platform
• autonomous calibration
• kalman filter error estimation
• accuracy evaluation