A Robust Nonlinear Observer for Real-Time Attitude Estimation Using Low-Cost MEMS Inertial Sensors
by
José Fermi Guerrero-Castellanos 1,*, Heberto Madrigal-Sastre 1, Sylvain Durand 2, Lizeth Torres 3
and German Ardul Muñoz-Hernández 1
José Fermi Guerrero-Castellanos 1,*, Heberto Madrigal-Sastre 1, Sylvain Durand 2, Lizeth Torres 3 and German Ardul Muñoz-Hernández 1
1
Faculty of Electronic, Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP), Ciudad universitaria, Puebla 72570, Mexico
2
Control Systems Department, GIPSA-lab laboratory, CNRS-University of Grenoble, ENSE3 BP 46, St Martin d'Hères Cedex 38402, France
3
Engineering Institute, Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Circuito Escolar, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico D.F. 04510, Mexico
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2013, 13(11), 15138-15158; https://doi.org/10.3390/s131115138
Received: 7 September 2013 / Revised: 22 October 2013 / Accepted: 22 October 2013 / Published: 6 November 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling, Testing and Reliability Issues in MEMS Engineering 2013)
This paper deals with the attitude estimation of a rigid body equipped with angular velocity sensors and reference vector sensors. A quaternion-based nonlinear observer is proposed in order to fuse all information sources and to obtain an accurate estimation of the attitude. It is shown that the observer error dynamics can be separated into two passive subsystems connected in “feedback”. Then, this property is used to show that the error dynamics is input-to-state stable when the measurement disturbance is seen as an input and the error as the state. These results allow one to affirm that the observer is “robustly stable”. The proposed observer is evaluated in real-time with the design and implementation of an Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) based on low-cost MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) Inertial Measure Unit (IMU) and magnetic sensors and a 16-bit microcontroller. The resulting estimates are compared with a high precision motion system to demonstrate its performance.
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Keywords:
nonlinear attitude observer; quaternion; MEMS IMU; Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS); real-time implementation
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Guerrero-Castellanos, J.F.; Madrigal-Sastre, H.; Durand, S.; Torres, L.; Muñoz-Hernández, G.A. A Robust Nonlinear Observer for Real-Time Attitude Estimation Using Low-Cost MEMS Inertial Sensors. Sensors 2013, 13, 15138-15158.
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