Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude

Translate This Thread From English to

Threaded View
Hi,

I am an amateur robotics fanatic and I need an expert advise.
I have a 3D accelerometers and three 1D gyros connected and a 3D
magnetic field sensor.
These sensors attached on to a carrier printed circuit board (PCB)  in
such a way that I can observe (by oscillascope) that their output
changes as I move/rotate the carrier board in 3D space.

Initially I leave the PCB in a predefined position on a table for
calibration. After that I move the PCB in 3D space and I want to
estimate the 3D position and orientation/attitude of the PCB at an
arbitrary time.

Assume that we have the following declerations to store the initial,
calibration values and the current values.

typedef struct {
   float AccV[3]; // Output voltages (AVx, AVy, AVz) of the
acceleormeters
   float GyrV[3]; // Output voltages (GVx, GVy, GVz) of the gyros
   float MagV[3]; // Output voltages (MVx, MVy, MVz) of the
magnetometers
}MeasStruct; // Measurements

typedef struct {
   float Pos[3]; // Position
   float Vel[3]; // Velocities
   float Acc[3]; // Acceleration
   float Att[3]; // Attitude (Roll, Pitch, Yaw  angles)
}PVAAStruct; // Pos,Vel, Acc, Att


MeasStruct CalibrationMeasurements;
PVAAStruct CalibrationPVAA;

MeasStruct CurrentMeasurements;
PVAAStruct CurrentPVAA;

long int T =0; // Time counter
int dT = 10; // Time increment in millisecond

void Init()
{
   CalibrationMeasurements.AccV[0] = ReadADC(AccVxChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.AccV[1] = ReadADC(AccVyChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.AccV[2] = ReadADC(AccVzChannel);

   CalibrationMeasurements.GyrV[0] = ReadADC(GyrVxChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.GyrV[1] = ReadADC(GyrVyChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.GyrV[2] = ReadADC(GyrVzChannel);

   CalibrationMeasurements.MagV[0] = ReadADC(MagVxChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.MagV[1] = ReadADC(MagVyChannel);
   CalibrationMeasurements.MagV[2] = ReadADC(MagVzChannel);

   CalibrationPVAA.Pos[0] = 0.0; // Position X
   CalibrationPVAA.Pos[1] = 0.0; // Position Y
   CalibrationPVAA.Pos[2] = 0.0; // Position Z

   CalibrationPVAA.Vel[0] = 0.0; // Velocities X
   CalibrationPVAA.Vel[1] = 0.0; // Velocities Y
   CalibrationPVAA.Vel[2] = 0.0; // Velocities Z

   CalibrationPVAA.Acc[0] = 0.0; // Acceleration X
   CalibrationPVAA.Acc[1] = 0.0; // Acceleration Y
   CalibrationPVAA.Acc[2] = 0.0; // Acceleration Z

   CalibrationPVAA.Att[0] = 0.0; // Attitude Rol angle
   CalibrationPVAA.Att[1] = 0.0; // Attitude Pitch angle
   CalibrationPVAA.Att[2] = 0.0; // Attitude Yaw  angle
}

void UpdateState()
{
   T = T + dT;
   CurrentMeasurements.AccV[0] = ReadADC(AccVxChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.AccV[1] = ReadADC(AccVyChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.AccV[2] = ReadADC(AccVzChannel);

   CurrentMeasurements.GyrV[0] = ReadADC(GyrVxChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.GyrV[1] = ReadADC(GyrVyChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.GyrV[2] = ReadADC(GyrVzChannel);

   CurrentMeasurements.MagV[0] = ReadADC(MagVxChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.MagV[1] = ReadADC(MagVyChannel);
   CurrentMeasurements.MagV[2] = ReadADC(MagVzChannel);

   // How to calculate current Pos, Vel, Acc, Att values?

   CurrentPVAA.Pos[0] = ??; // Position X
   CurrentPVAA.Pos[1] = ??; // Position Y
   CurrentPVAA.Pos[2] = ??; // Position Z

   CurrentPVAA.Vel[0] = ??; // Velocities X
   CurrentPVAA.Vel[1] = ??; // Velocities Y
   CurrentPVAA.Vel[2] = ??; // Velocities Z

   CurrentPVAA.Acc[0] = ??; // Acceleration X
   CurrentPVAA.Acc[1] = ??; // Acceleration Y
   CurrentPVAA.Acc[2] = ??; // Acceleration Z

   CurrentPVAA.Att[0] = ??; // Attitude Rol angle
   CurrentPVAA.Att[1] = ??; // Attitude Pitch angle
   CurrentPVAA.Att[2] = ??; // Attitude Yaw  angle
}

}
int main()
{
   Init();
   while (1) {
     UpdateState();
     fprintf("Position=(%f, %f, %f), Attitude=(%f, %f, %f)",

CurrentPVAA.Pos[0],CurrentPVAA.Pos[1],CurrentPVAA.Pos[2],

CurrentPVAA.Att[0],CurrentPVAA.Att[1],CurrentPVAA.Att[2]);

   }
}

Question;
Can you show me/us how to calculate position and attitude estimates of
the PCB at any time step?
i.e. Can you help me how to finalise the UpdateState() function?


Regards,

Miem Chan
miemchan at gmail com


Re: Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude



Sure.  The new velocity is the old velocity plus the acceleration times
dT.  The new position is the old position plus the velocity times dT.  
Just be careful with your units and make sure they all match properly.

Best,
- Joe

Re: Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude



Thank you Joe,

But how to improve that approach by also using gyros and magnetometers?

Regards,

Miem


Re: Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude


I've got no experience with solving the problem but there are some well
known approaches and algorithms.  Here's some links to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor_fusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_filter

--
Curt Welch                                            http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com                                        http://NewsReader.Com/

Re: Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude



The technique for combining these sensors into a single
orientation sensor is called an Extended Kalman Filter.

It's a little more involved than just adapting the code you
have posted here.  Take a look at the sourceforge autopilot
project:

<http://autopilot.sourceforge.net>

which has Kalman Filter source code for a home-brew 3-D inertial
measurement unit.

best
dpa


Re: Low cost MEMs accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers --> 3D Posisition and attitude


This web site has some very good papers on this:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~johannb/

Good Luck,
Bob

Site Timeline