No abstract

<p>Traditionally, Kalman Filter is used for the purpose of mixing several input signals and extracting a more reliable output, which greatly benefits aircraft navigation. This paper considers a fusion of four sensor systems: Global Positioning System (GPS), accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The resultant device, known as Starfish Main Tracking Unit (MTU), is a Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) / Tracking System equipment that uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) / Iridium / ICS (Internet Communications Services), which provides low cost telemetry as well as multiple solutions for global flight following and flight data transfer between aircraft and ground. Users from ground are able to monitor their fleet, configure their systems and also generate various flight reports from a single web-based interface, named the Starfish Fleet Management system. This developed system complements the Black Box by downloading limited aircraft data to the ground, provides real time tracking and assist in Search and Rescue (SAR) mission.</p>

Aircraft tracking via satellite uses four dimensional aircraft position information to enhance flight safety by recording, scrutinizing and visualizing the information generated by an Airborne Tracking Unit (ATU) fitted onboard of aircraft flying from one point to another. It is an important device for aircraft operator to ensure its operational safety. Starfish Tracker SF3100-1 aircraft tracking unit can be used in aircraft satellite tracking applications. Research collaboration between Worldgate Technologies (WGT), Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has developed the ATU originally from land base to airborne vehicles tracking, hence it provides multitudes of civil and military applications. The ATU is a unique device that enables multi-tasking application such as Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI), Network Centric Warfare and Flight Data Monitoring systems. In this paper, system characteristics and its applications are presented with the potential applications for Flight Data Monitoring system.