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Calibration Of Sensors Using Arduino

S.Choudhury, S.Kisku, S.Majhi, S.Moharana, A.Raj, S.Sharma , V.Kumar, S.Das

AbstractIn this paper we present an efficient calibration

technique for low cost sensors based on Arduino codes to
reduce the marginal and any arbitrary errors in sensors due
to environmental effects and designing defects. Calibration is
process of finding a relationship between two unknown (when
the measurable quantities are not given a particular value for
the amount considered or found comparing with a standard for
the quantity) quantities. The different sensors were combined
and set up on a single Arduino board to improve accuracy and
sensor output. The project consisted of three important sensorsTemperature, Accelerometer and Ultrasonic sensor. Temperature
Sensor features a temperature complex with a calibrated digital
signal output. Accelerometer is used as a baseline to discern
orientation with respect to a given frame of reference. Ultrasonic
sensor uses a technique similar to that of SONAR to determine
distance of an object from a transmitted signal. The ultrasonic
sensor was calibrated using multi-point curve fitting technique
after the necessary observations were taken from an experiment
using Arduino codes for the sensor. Open source kalman filter
code was used for calibration of accelerometer, multiple point
curve fitting algorithm was used for calibration of temperature
sensor and one-point calibration technique was used for calibration of ultrasonic sensor. (Abstract)

and subject to variability as well,Temperature measurements

are subject to thermal gradients between the sensor and the
measurement point,Light and color sensors can be affected
by spectral distribution, ambient light, specular reflections and
other optical phenomena and inertial sensors are sensitive to
alignment with the system being measured.
The two most important characteristics of a good sensors
are precision-the ability to produce the same output for the
same input and resolution-the ability to to reliably detect small
changes in the measured parameter.
In this paper we wil carry out the calibration of
three sensors namely accelerometer-MPU-6050,ultrasonic-HCSRO4,temperature sensor-LM-35.
II.

BLOCK DIAGRAM

Keywordscalibration,ultrasonic,accelerometer,kalman,curve,fitting.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Calibration is a set of operations that under certain conditions establish relations between values indicated by a
measuring instrument or system, or values represented by a
materialised measure or reference material, and values realised
by measurement standards.
There are a lot of good sensors available and many are good
enough out of the box for many non-critical applications.
But in order to achieve the best possible accuracy, a sensor
should be calibrated in the system where it will be used. This
is because:
1) No sensor is perfect since sample to sample manufacturing variations means that even two sensors from the same manufacturer production run may yield slightly different readings
,Differences in sensor design mean two different sensors may
respond differently in similar conditions. This is especially true
of indirect sensors that calculate a measurement based on one
or more actual measurements of some different, but related
parameters,Sensors subject to heat, cold, shock, humidity etc.
during storage, shipment and/or assembly may show some
variations in response and some sensor technologies age and
their response naturally changes over time - requiring periodic
re-calibration
2) The Sensor is only one component in the measurement
system,and the reading vary with different variables like in an
analog sensors, the ADC is part of the measurement system

Fig. 1. Block diagram

III.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Fig. 2. Circuit Diagram

JOURNAL OF CALIBATION OF SENSORS USING ARDUINO, November 2015

IV. BASIC CONCEPTS OF CALIBRATION
The first thing to decide is what the calibration reference
would be like.
1.Standard References
If it is important to get accurate readings in some standard
units, a Standard Reference is needed to calibrate using it as
a reference. This can be:
A calibrated sensor - If a sensor or instrument that is
known to be accurate, it can be used to make reference
readings for comparison. Most laboratories have instruments
that have been calibrated against NIST standards. These will
have documentation including the specific reference against
which they were calibrated, as well as any correction factors
that need to be applied to the output.
A standard physical reference - Reasonably accurate physical standards can be used as standard references for some types
of sensors like rulers,rangefinders,boiling water,ice water,value
of g.
2.The Characteristic Curve
Each sensor will have a characteristic curve that defines
the sensors response to an input. The calibration process maps
the sensors response to an ideal linear response. How to best
accomplish that depends on the nature of the characteristic
curve.

FLOWCHART

V. CALIBRATION PROCEDURE
we will be analysing three calibration techniques one each
for the three sensors used
1.Kalman Filter
KALMAN FILTER is the one of best techniques for
calibration. The calibration of accelerometer MPU6050 is done
by KALMAN filtering algorithm. The raw readings of input
variable i.e the orientation of the sensor and the output of
the sensor give the basic variables to be used in the next
calibration technique i.e the KALMAN process which reduces
the non-linearity of sensor. This is the basic aim of the product
to show proper values of different parameters that are to be
measured.[1]
Initially the bias is zero hence; the error covariance matrix
is taken as a null matrix. The covariance noise in observance
is calculated from the observed readings of the sensor without
the filter and the observer and the process noise variance
is assumed to be zero. The variable B is also set to zero
as no controlling input is present to change the upcoming
readings. The variable H is set to 1 as the output reading
is observed. Now as per KALMAN process defined in the
flow chart the error covariance matrix and the Kalman gain
is continuously updated with time the sensor starts to give
continuous readings with an interval which is defined in the
code. The new readings of the sensor after Kalman filtering
are almost equal to the real time readings. [5][6][8][9]

Department of Electronics and Communication,NIT Rourkela

JOURNAL OF CALIBATION OF SENSORS USING ARDUINO, November 2015

Fig. 3. kalman filter flowchart

Fig. 5. One point calibration flowchart

2.One Point Calibration

One-point calibration is the simplest type of calibration.
If the sensor output is already scaled to useful measurement
units, a one-point calibration can be used to correct the sensor
offset errors when only one measurement point is needed or
the sensor is known to be linear and has the correct slope
over a desired measurement range.This process can be used
for calibration of Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04.[2]-[4]

3.Multi-Point Curve Fitting

Sensors that are not linear over the measurement range
require some curve-fitting to achieve accurate measurements
over the measurement range. A common case requiring
curve-fitting is thermocouples at extremely hot or cold temperatures. While nearly linear over a fairly wide range,
they do deviate significantly at extreme temperatures. The
graphs below show the characteristic curves of high, intermediate and low temperature sensors. This process can
be used for calibration of Temperature Sensor LM-35.[7]

Fig. 6. Applicability conditions of Multi point curve fitting

Fig. 4. Applicability conditions of One point calibration
FLOWCHART

Fig. 7. Multi point calibration flowchart

Department of Electronics and Communication,NIT Rourkela

JOURNAL OF CALIBATION OF SENSORS USING ARDUINO, November 2015

VI.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The three algorithms were implemented using ARDUINO

codes for calibration of Accelerometer MPU6050,ultrasonic
sensor HC-SR04,temperature sensor LM-35. The performance
of the sensors has been clearlyimproved as can be clearly seen
from the following graphs

Fig. 10. LM-35 characteristics plot

Fig. 8. accelerometer calibration plot

It can be clearly noted that the kalman filter provides stability
to the accelerometer and in case of sudden position or coordinate changes,the accelerometer provides accurate readings.

LM-35 temperature sensor shoes non-linear characteristics,hence one point calibration cannot be used for calibration
and hence multi point curve fitting has been used,after calculation of regression coefficient for each data entry the calibrated
sensor output is the product of non-calibrated output and the
regression coefiicient at that data entry.The calibrated value
provide a better estimate of the actual value than that of the
non-calibrated value.

Fig.
9. HC-SR04 characteristics plot
As the distance of the target increases the readings of the
ultrasonic sensor tends to drift from the actual values.This
drifting of values can be neutralised using an offset which
is introduced using the one point calibration method.The
calibrated readings are accurate and sufficiently close to the
actual readings through out the measurement range .

Fig. 11. Final product

Department of Electronics and Communication,NIT Rourkela

JOURNAL OF CALIBATION OF SENSORS USING ARDUINO, November 2015

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[5] E. Renk, M. Rizzo, W. Collins, F. Lee, and D. Bernstein, Calibrating

a triaxial accelerometer-magnetometer-using robotic actuation for sensor
reorientation during data collection, IEEE Control Syst. Mag., vol. 25,
no. 6, pp. 8695,
[6] P. Batista, C. Silvestre, P. Oliveira, and B. Cardeira, Accelerometer
calibration and dynamic bias and gravity estimation: Analysis, design,
and experimental evaluation, IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol., vol.
19, no. 5, pp. 11281137, Sep. 2011.
[7] H. Kuga, R. da Fonseca Lopes, and W. Einwoegerer, Experimental
static calibration of an IMU (inertial measurement unit) based on
MEMS, in Proc. XIX COBEM, Braslia, DF, Brazil, 2007.
[8] J. Ambadan and Y. Tang, Sigma-point Kalman filter data assimilation
methods for strongly nonlinear systems, J. Atmos. Sci., vol. 66, no. 2,
pp. 261285, Feb. 2009.
[9] S. Won and F. Golnaraghi, A triaxial accelerometer calibration
method using a mathematical model, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol.
59, no. 8,pp. 21442153, Aug. 2010.

Fig. 12. Product in Working state

VII.

CONCLUSION

Three calibration techniques based on the use of a Arduino

microcontroller has been presented.Use of each of the above
calibration techniques has been presented by calibrating accelerometers,ultrasonic sensors,temperature sensors.Significant
improvement was noticed in the sensor readings after calibration and the sensors are now ready for any further use.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
WE would like to thank the Department of Electronics and
Communication, NIT Rourkela as a whole for providing us
every possible help and for providing insights and guidance
on complete topic. We are also thankful to Department of
Mechanical Engineer for allowing us to use the Themal
laboratary for experimentation. We are also greatly thankful
that the curriculum has included this lab which helped us get
a practical insight and develop innovative ideas.
R EFERENCES
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Department of Electronics and Communication,NIT Rourkela