Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: kempga@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Greg Kemp)
Subject: Re: Questions about Tracked Robot Vehicles
Message-ID: <1992Apr9.144934.27189@cs.rose-hulman.edu>
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References: <1992Apr9.131650.7721@sctc.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:49:34 GMT
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In article <1992Apr9.131650.7721@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith)  
writes:
> feng@srvr1 (Liqiang Feng, ) writes:
> >In other words, is dead reckoning still a feasible option for 
> >navigation?                       ^^^^^^
> 
> I didn't think dead reckoning had _ever_ been a feasible option for
> navigation. I had the impression that even oceangoing vehicles only
> used it as a method for choosing which continent they arrived at.
> 
> Rick.
> smith@sctc.com          arden hills, minnesota

Some early ballistic missiles (robotic aircraft?) used a form of dead  
reckoning to guide them to their target (they called it "inertial  
guidance" to snow the defense dept.).  It's a really lousy method, as you  
pointed out, but nuclear missiles weren't graded for accuracy in those  
days either.

--
Greg Kemp
inmate, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Terre Haute, IN
Internet: kempga@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu

