Knowledge Bank

Inertial surveying systems present an entirely new method for the determination of geodetic positions, heights, deflection components and gravity anomalies at a large number of points in a relatively short time. This report first details in brief the existing inertial survey systems and then proceeds to outline and compare various suggested approaches to the post-mission adjustment procedures used for smoothing the raw positional output from the real time Kalman filter. A simulation of an area survey is made in which the error model is held fixed and the number, location of control points, and method of traversing is varied. From these simulations, recommendations for traverse procedures involving these variables are suggested. Finally, recommendations are made for future investigations into post-mission adjustment procedures and traverse configurations.