MEMS-based Inertial Navigation System Research Articles

A switched adaptive strategy for state estimation in MEMS-based inertial navigation systems with application for a flight test

Abstract This paper proposes a switched model to improve the estimation of Euler angles and decrease the inertial navigation system (INS) error, when the centrifugal acceleration occurs. Depending on the situation, one of the subsystems of the proposed switched model is activated for the estimation procedure. During global positioning system (GPS) outages, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) operates in the prediction mode and corrects the INS information, based on the system error model. Compared with previous works, the main advantages of the proposed switched-based adaptive EKF (SAEKF) method are (i) elimination of INS error, during the centrifugal acceleration, and (ii) high accuracy in estimating the attitude and positioning, particularly during GPS outages. To validate the efficiency of the proposed method in various trajectories, an experimental flight test is performed and discussed, involving a microelectromechanical (MEMS)-based INS. The comparative study shows that the proposed method considerably improves the accuracy in various scenarios.

Smartphone MEMS Accelerometer and Gyroscope Measurement Errors: Laboratory Testing and Analysis of the Effects on Positioning Performance.

Embedding various sensors with powerful computing and storage capabilities in a small communication device, smartphones have become a prominent platform for navigation. With the increasing popularity of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, smartphones are quickly replacing built-in automotive navigation solutions. On the other hand, smartphones are equipped with low-performance Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors to enhance their navigation performance in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-degraded or -denied environments. Compared with higher-grade inertial navigation systems (INS), MEMS-based INSs have a poor navigation performance due to large measurement errors. In this paper, we present laboratory test results on the stochastic and deterministic errors observed in MEMS inertial sensor measurements of five different smartphones from different manufacturers. Then, we describe and discuss the short-term effects of these errors on the pure inertial navigation performance and also on the navigation performance based on the tight coupling of INS with GNSS measurements using a smartphone.

A Cosine-Fitting Self-Alignment Method of MEMS-Based Inertial Navigation System Consisting of a Skew FOG

MEMS inertial measurement unit (MIMU) has widely used in low-cost inertial navigation fields, such as pedestrian navigation system. However, the realization of self-alignment function and high-grade navigation performance are still uprising challenges. In present study, a novel MIMU/FOG compound system consisting of the MEMS inertial sensors and a skew fiber optic gyro (FOG) is proposed. The configuration which is based on the rotation modulation technology, realizes self-alignment function, and the skew FOG used as the redundant angular velocity measurement unit improves the navigation accuracy. During the rotation process, the projection of the fiber optic gyro sensitive axis is a direct current component, the earth rotation rate projected on the sensitive axis of the fiber optic gyro is a cosine component, and the initial phase is the yaw. Further, a cosine-fitting self-alignment method which requires no latitude information is introduced to calculate initial yaw alignment accuracy. The alignment time is adjustable by setting various rotation rate of rotary mechanism. When the rotary mechanism rate is fixed at 1°/s, the proposed method achieves better yaw alignment accuracy of 0.37° ( $1\boldsymbol {\sigma }$ ) by using the 0.1°/h (100s, $1\boldsymbol {\sigma }$ ) fiber optic gyro. Our work opens up a new perspective to implement self-alignment of the MIMU/FOG compound system.

Design and Development of MEMS Sensors Based Inertial Navigation Systems for Aerial Vehicles: A Case Study

Background & Objective: MEMS sensors are rapidly growing as a sensing technology in all spheres of science and engineering. MEMS technology is playing an important role in avionics for miniaturization of systems and MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) is one of the example. The situational awareness and performance of an aerial vehicle is computed with the help of an INS. This paper describes the case study for design of MEMS based low cost rugged INS for aerial vehicles. The 9 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) that are obtained from the sensors provide an inaccurate attitude information of aerial vehicles due to presence of external accelerations and the gyroscopic drifts in MEMS sensors. In order to overcome such problems and for the precise and reliable computation of orientation information, the error characteristics of accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes have been combined into a sensor fusion algorithm with ‘Kalman Filter’ to compute the accurate orientation information. The processing has been done on STM32F407VGT6 microcontroller board. An accuracy of ± 0.1 degrees is achieved for Roll and Pitch and ± 1.0 degrees for Yaw have been obtained. The experimental results have been obtained in statically (keeping the device in a static position) and dynamically (rotating the device at different angles along roll, pitch and yaw axis) at room temperature of 22°C. Methods: The design is different in a way that it has used a unique combination of trio MEMS sensors network consisting of FXOS8700CQ Accelerometer, FXAS21000 Gyroscope, FXOS8700CQ Magnetometer. Results: The attitude estimation algorithm has been implemented on the 32-bit microcontroller. The information data is processed and displayed on 88.9 mm TFT-LCD through Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Constrained MEMS-Based GNSS/INS Tightly Coupled System With Robust Kalman Filter for Accurate Land Vehicular Navigation

Special approaches are required to integrate low-cost MEMS-based inertial navigation system (MEMS-INS) with global navigation satellite system (GNSS). This article proposes a robust GNSS/MEMS-strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), the tightly coupled navigation approach aided by non-holonomic constraint (NHC). The tight integration model is adopted to overcome the accuracy degradation caused by changing satellite geometry and frequent GNSS outages in urban areas. The innovation-based test statistic is devised to enhance the filtering with the resistance to GNSS outliers. To further improve the stand-alone accuracy during relatively long GNSS outages, the virtual measurement is also introduced using the NHC condition that land vehicle does not slip and always remain in contact with the ground. The field test results with continuous GNSS aiding indicate that the proposed algorithm can improve overall accuracy in position, velocity, and attitude by about 16, 43, and 19% with immunity from GNSS outliers, compared with the traditional loosely coupled (LC) method. Even during 60-s GNSS outages, the proposed algorithm can effectively compensate MEMS-SINS errors, accomplishing the overall accuracy improvements by about 46% (position), 35% (velocity), and 15% (attitude), compared with the traditional LC counterpart.

MEMS IMU Error Mitigation Using Rotation Modulation Technique.

Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) outputs are corrupted by significant sensor errors. The navigation errors of a MEMS-based inertial navigation system will therefore accumulate very quickly over time. This requires aiding from other sensors such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). However, it will still remain a significant challenge in the presence of GNSS outages, which are typically in urban canopies. This paper proposed a rotary inertial navigation system (INS) to mitigate navigation errors caused by MEMS inertial sensor errors when external aiding information is not available. A rotary INS is an inertial navigator in which the IMU is installed on a rotation platform. Application of proper rotation schemes can effectively cancel and reduce sensor errors. A rotary INS has the potential to significantly increase the time period that INS can bridge GNSS outages and make MEMS IMU possible to maintain longer autonomous navigation performance when there is no external aiding. In this research, several IMU rotation schemes (rotation about X-, Y- and Z-axes) are analyzed to mitigate the navigation errors caused by MEMS IMU sensor errors. As the IMU rotation induces additional sensor errors, a calibration process is proposed to remove the induced errors. Tests are further conducted with two MEMS IMUs installed on a tri-axial rotation table to verify the error mitigation by IMU rotations.

Augmented Cubature Kalman filter for nonlinear RTK/MIMU integrated navigation with non-additive noise

Abstract In order to enhance the capability of autonomous operation for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), a MEMS-based inertial navigation system (INS)/global navigation satellite system (GNSS) integrated navigation method is proposed. An augmented Cubature Kalman filter is derived to fulfil the data fusion of precise GNSS real-time kinematic (RTK) solution and noisy inertial measurements. In the filter, Cubature Kalman filtering is adopted to handle the strong INS model nonlinearity caused by sudden and large UAV maneuvers, and the technique of state-augmentation is used to capture meaningful odd-order moment information and reduce the adverse impacts of non-additive noise in inertial measurements. It is analyzed that the basic difference between the augmented and non-augmented CKFs generally favors the augmented CKF, which is supported by a representative example and flight test. The results of flight test have also shown that the proposed augmented Cubature Kalman filtering method can complete more accurate navigation compared with the conventional EKF/UKF-based approaches.

Low-Cost Three-Dimensional Navigation Solution for RISS/GPS Integration Using Mixture Particle Filter

Recent technological advances in both GPS and low-cost microelectromechanical-system (MEMS)-based inertial sensors have enabled the monitoring of the location of moving platforms for numerous positioning and navigation (POS/NAV) applications. GPS is presently widely used in land vehicles. However, in some environments, the GPS signal may suffer from signal blockage and multipath effects that deteriorate the positioning accuracy. When miniaturized inside any moving platforms, the MEMS-based inertial navigation system (INS) can be integrated with GPS and enhance the performance in denied GPS environments (like in urban canyons). Targeting a low-cost navigation solution for land vehicles, this paper uses a reduced inertial sensor system (RISS) with MEMS-based inertial sensors. In this paper, the RISS consists of one single-axis gyroscope and a two-axis accelerometer used together with the vehicle's odometer, and the whole system is integrated with GPS to obtain a 3-D navigation solution. The traditional technique for this integration problem is Kalman filtering (KF). Due to the inherent errors of MEMS inertial sensors and the relatively high noise levels associated with their measurements, KF has limited capabilities in providing accurate positioning. Particle filtering (PF) was recently suggested as a nonlinear filtering technique to accommodate arbitrary inertial sensor characteristics, motion dynamics, and noise distributions. An enhanced version of PF is utilized in this paper and is called Mixture PF. The performance of the proposed 3-D navigation solution using Mixture PF for RISS/GPS integration is examined by road-test trajectories in a land vehicle. The proposed method is compared with four other solutions: 1) 3-D solution using KF for full INS/GPS integration; 2) 2-D solution using KF for RISS/GPS integration; 3) 2-D solution using Mixture PF for RISS/GPS integration; and 4) 3-D solution using sampling/importance resampling (SIR) PF for RISS/GPS integration. The experimental results show that the proposed solution outperforms all the compared counterparts.