Inertial Navigation System

An inertial navigation system uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to continuously calculate a vehicle's position, orientation and velocity without relying on outside references such as radio signals or the stars. German engineers built early gyroscopic guidance systems for the V-2 rocket during the Second World War, and American engineer Charles Stark Draper's Instrumentation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology substantially advanced the technology afterward, developing inertial guidance systems used in postwar aircraft and, by the late 1950s, in submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Inertial navigation remains a core guidance technology for aircraft, spacecraft, submarines and missiles, often combined today with satellite positioning for added accuracy.