Inertial Surveying Systems and their Use in Geodetic Positioning

Abstract

Inertial Surveying Systems are a very recent advance in surveying technology; they are the single most comprehensive geodetic positioning tool available today. Their historical development is briefly discussed and comments are made upon the specific interpretation of the geodetic parameters output by the system. Those systems commercially available are compared and state of the art accuracies given. These figures include recent results from an adjustment of a network of inertial traverses in which the accuracies obtained appear to be near the threshold of those possible with the present generation of hardware and its associated software.