Are accurate clocks really the limiting factor in cheap Inertial Navigation?

[soldar]

This is post hoc reasoning. When GPS was being developed the receivers looked so large, heavy, complex and expensive it was far from obvious that it would ever be really compact and cheap. Most people assumed Loran, Decca and other existing systems would have a long life serving people who couldn't live with the drawbacks of GPS. However, just as GSM was developed to be a car telephone system until around 2000, yet resulted in light handhelds in the early 1990s, GPS moved far quicker than most people expected.

I  do not see in my post any reasoning at all, mush less "post hoc" , "et cetera" or "inter alia". I do not see how you post is in disagreement with anything I said in mine and I wonder if you are assuming inferences which are not intended, suggested or even condoned by me.

I used Loran-C for many years, even after GPS was available. When they gave notice that Loran-C would be discontinued I was against it being discontinued. At about that time a bolt of lightning hit my boat destroying all electronics and I took it as a sign from above that the life of Loran really was coming to an end. Obviously I replaced it with a GPS receiver.

In any case the answer to the question "Are accurate clocks really the limiting factor in cheap Inertial Navigation?" the answer is "no".

[Mechatrommer]

Ufortunatly, it doesn't answer the 3'rd one:
3. WTF, am I doing here?

apart from the exhaustive neverending quest for that by top notch human being, there is a simple book fully describing that. anyone understanding and applying whats in the book will be fully navigated nevermind the other books, they are hoax.

[LaserSteve]

Mechatrommer scribbled....
I quote:

"
apart from the exhaustive neverending quest for that by top notch human being, there is a simple book fully describing that. anyone understanding and applying whats in the book will be fully navigated nevermind the other books, they are hoax."

And your referring to The Art of Electronics 2nd Edition ?  Used to be marketed as  #1 selling book to EEs, with a certain religious text  coming in second....

Having really precise time lets you do very good Dead Reckoning /  Inertial.   What is more important in the future,  is it lets you do it in synchronism with other vehicles/infantry/drones.   The US Secretary of Defense said a while back that he is/was  working really hard to see that  GPS becomes a mere backup, and in fact of such lower importance that it could be handed over to the Department of Transportation for management and funding.  That is where the drive for such tiny, precise, clocks come from.. How the rest of that system will work has not been fully discussed, but I can see lots of opportunities for co-operative pseudo-ranging methods using line of site radio ranging.


Steve

[hamster_nz]

... posts current XKCD "1921 Fact checker", and everybod looks confused....

Darn, it rolled over quicker than I expected. When I looked it was "New Robot":

[StillTrying]

There's almost no comments anywhere on the original article, but here's a couple.

"Can someone explain why a portable atomic clock “allow(s) them to navigate where there is no satellite signal”? Are they going to use a sextant?"

"The abstract says nothing about geolocation, and measuring time with exquisite detail gives you absolutely NO CLUE on where you are, so dear author: could you please explain how it works and/or quote the original authors?"

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/portable-atomic-clocks-navigation/