Matthews, Christopher J.2011-04-262011-04-262010-12https://hdl.handle.net/11299/103212University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. December 2010. Major: Aerospace Engineering and mechanics. Advisor:Demoz Gebre-Egziabher. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 74 pages.Personal navigation concerns the tracking of human beings via devices carried or worn by individuals and presents a unique set of challenges in regards to navigation system and algorithm design. Many conventional position ¯xing and dead reckoning approaches tend to perform poorly given the requirements for personal navigation, which may consider GNSS-denied environments, a wide, highly dynamic range of motion, and low-cost and small form-factor sensor limitations. A novel approach to assisting or augmenting other navigation algorithms by employing a kinetic model of human gait is presented in this thesis. The kinetic model in concert with a single-axis accelerometer is shown here to comprise a virtual sensor capable of providing step size estimates in-situ for straight forward walking. Furthermore, the combination of the kinetic model and accelerometer yields a navigation solution of comparable or better performance when compared to a step counting dead reckoning approach. The derivation of this model is discussed, details of the experiments are given, and results are shown.en-USNavigation systemNavigation algorithmsAlgorithm designKinetic modelAerospace Engineering and mechanicsThesis or Dissertation