To make effectively use of the polarized light information of the whole horizon and to explore the mechanism of bionic polarized light navigation, a polarization vision sensor was designed. The polarization vision sensor based on four cameras was introduced and its calibration method was given. Then, the optimal estimation of the polarization state was derived based on least square algorithm. The skylight polarization pattern was analyzed based on the first order Rayleigh scattering model, the estimation of sun direction vector was translated into an optimization problem of finding the minimum eigenvector, and the positioning and orientation algorithm was derived. Finally, the theoretical analysis was verified by a static experiment and a rotation experiment. The results show that the measured skylight polarization pattern is consistent with the Rayleigh scattering model and the solar vector can be extracted successfully from it. In the static experiment, the maximum error of the solar zenith angle is about 0.4 °with the standard deviation of 0.14 °and the positioning error is about 68.6 km based on the observation data within one hour. In rotation experiment, the maximum orientation error is about 0.5° with the standard deviation of 0.28 °. This study reveals the mechanism of bionic navigation based on polarized light, and provides a theoretical basis for its applications to the bionic polarized light navigation.