The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) published ‘An Introduction to Inertial Navigation Systems’ (IMCA S 022) produced for the association by Gordon Johnson under the direction of the IMCA Offshore Survey Division Management Committee.

IMCA published this introduction due to the increased use of inertial navigation systems (INS), particularly in support of offshore survey, installation and inspection tasks.

Jane Bugler, IMCA’s Technical Director explains: “This new document provides a broad overview of INS technology currently in use in surface and subsurface positioning solutions, giving a general overview of the technologies, the applications and a number of important considerations in their use. This is very much a developing area and, as ever, proper planning, preparation and risk assessment is critical to ensuring the successful use of these systems.”

According to Bugler, IMCA S 022 does not attempt to provide the reader with an in-depth understanding of the algorithms behind inertial navigation systems, but covers the main components of such solutions and some of their strengths and weaknesses.