Kalman filter real time tracking using microprocessors and a new language for military software.

Abstract

A sequential Extended Kalman filter routine, implemented in the "C" language, is developed for an embedded computer application. The design takes into account the real time constraints imposed by the sampling time of the data. Filter measurements consist of four (4) transit times generated by torpedo instrumentation in a TEST RANGE facility, and they are nonlinear functions of the coordinates of the torpedo. Memory, speed efficiency, and portability are emphasized in the software design. The program was tested, using simulated trajectories, in an IBM-PC and in a CIE 680/30 microcomputers. Limitations in handling small floating point numbers degraded the performance of the algorithm in the CIE machine which could not track 1/4-G maneuvers.