Sensor fusion system to estimate the trajectory of a low cost mobile robotic platform using an Inertial Measurement Unit

Abstract

In this paper, the development and implementation of an algorithm is presented to identify the trajectory of a mobile robot based on data from an Inertial Measurement Unit with nine degrees of freedom consisting of a 3-axis accelerometers, an 3-axis gyroscopes, an 3- axis magnetometers, and an additional temperature sensor to compensate for temperature errors. The combined information from this set of sensors allows determining the trajectory and orientation of the robot at any moment to complement the information from its navigation system. Initially, it was necessary to build controlled test environments that allow observing and getting to know the trajectory and the dimensions thereof for capturing the raw data of the mobile robotic platform. Then, the data obtained form the sensor was processed off-line applying a Kalman filter with the aim to remove Gaussian noise; to estimating the trajectory and the absolute orientation of the mobile robotic platform the proposed algorithm was implemented. This implementation used the hardware elements are inexpensive, thus allowing the necessary testing, the data analysis and the interpretation of the outcome to be replicable and to be used as an educational tool within courses of undergraduate and master level. The elements of hardware used in this implementation are cheap, allowing its reproduction for the analysis and interpretation of data and can be used as an educational tool in courses of undergraduate and master level.