Introduction
An inertial navigation system is a system is a navigation system that is comprised of a computer and one or more inertial sensors that detect movement grouped into what is called an inertial measurement unit, or what is also referred to as an inertial reference unit. An inertial measurement unit is usually comprised of two types of sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes. Accelerometers are a sensor that can detect acceleration, and gyroscopes can be described as either a sensor to detect change in orientation, or a rotation. The measurements from these sensors are fed into a navigation computer which can then calculate a current position and velocity, from acceleration, time, initial velocity and an initial position. These initial positions and velocities are referred to as a reference point.
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Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that without any external input or reference, an inertial navigation system would gradually decrease in accuracy due to mechanical or electrical errors with no limit on how inaccurate it can become. Over time, the error in predicting the current position would keep developing with no limit, until a reliable external source can set a new reference point of the current position. On the other hand, any kind of navigation system that uses external input or reference would be able to correct itself and maintain accuracy within a predicted margin of error.