Buddy Bishop , AESS Chair
AESS had a very successful Fall Meeting featuring IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. James L. Farrell, VIGIL, Inc. speaking on GPS and Inertial Data Processing Dr. Farrell used simple graphics illustrating orbital parameters and computed solutions for navigation and timing demonstrating satellite geometry effects, using real satellite measurements. He closed the introductory session with a graphical demonstration and computation of performance achievable in a simulated cruise flight.
In the second half-day, Dr. Farrell demonstrated applying GPS updating to a low-cost inertial measuring unit (IMU). He showed how the end user can discard unnecessary complexity generated by traditional mechanizations which are an outgrowth of past computing limitations. Using a simplified approach, he demonstrated applicability to the overwhelming majority of practical operations and validated results by state-of-the-art performance using van and flight test results on a low-cost IMU.
Presenter Bio:
Dr. Farrell holds a M.S. degree from UCLA (1961) and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland (1967) and is a registered professional engineer in Maryland. He is a former ION Air Representative, an ION Fellow, an IEEE Senior Member, a former local board member of AIAA, a registered professional engineer in Maryland, and member of various scholastic honorary fraternities. Technical experience includes teaching appointments at Marquette and UCLA, two years each at Minneapolis Honeywell and Bendix-Pacific, plus 31 years at Westinghouse in design, simulation, and validation of navigation and tracking programs.
He is author of Integrated Aircraft Navigation (Academic Press, 1976; now in paperback after five hard-cover printings), is a former columnist for Washington Technology, and has written over 80 journal and conference manuscripts. He served as co-chairman of an RTCA Working Group for GPS Integrity. With VIGIL Inc. he has continued his teaching (on University campus as well as in both industry and conference seminars), while consulting for private industry, DOD, and University research. His main area of activity is now in GPS/inertial integration, writing programs validated with test data collected by Ohio University.