Module 3 3

1. Sensor Types
2. MEMS Accelerometers
3. MEMS Gyroscopes
4. MEMS Magnetometers
5. Accelerometer-based Euler angles estimation
6. Gyroscope-based Euler angles estimation
7. Accelerometer-Magnetometer-based Euler angles
estimation
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 Complementary filters (CF) provide a means of fusing low bandwidth position
measurements with high band width rate measurements for the first order kinematic
systems.

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3.1
 There are three basic types of gyroscopes:

 Rotary (classical) gyroscopes

 Optical gyroscopes

 Vibrating structure gyroscope

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3.2

Parameters
 An accurate gyro sensor is a stable gyro sensor. The keys to stable gyro sensors are:
1. Low noise level
2. Stability over temperature
2-1. Bias stability over temperature
2-2. Scale factor stability over temperature
3. Vibration and shock resistance
3-1. Resistance to vibrations other than angular velocity
3-2. Shock resistance

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3.3

Applications – Orientation Angles Estimation

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 The Gyro gives us the angular velocity with a unit of deg./sec., i.e.:

𝑑𝜃
𝜃ሶ =
𝑑𝑡

 To obtain the angular position, we can simply integrate the angular velocity.
Assuming that at t=0, θ=0:
𝑡 𝑡

𝜃 𝑡 = න 𝜃ሶ 𝑡 𝑑𝑡 ≈ ෍ 𝜃ሶ 𝑡 𝑇𝑆
0 0

where TS denotes a sampling period (for mechanical systems should be 100÷200 Hz).

 When Gyro data changes faster than the sampling frequency, we will not detect it,
and the integral approximation will be incorrect.
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 Another integration approach is performed in quaternions domain based on relation:
1
𝑞ሶ = 𝝎 × 𝑞 = Ω 𝜔 ∙ 𝑞
2
where Ω 𝜔 is a skew-symmetric matrix, 𝝎 = 0 𝜔𝑋 𝜔𝑌 𝜔𝑍 𝑇

 Then orientation quaternion can be numerically calculated as:

1
𝑞ሶ 𝜔 𝑡 = 𝑞ො 𝑡 − 1 × 𝝎 𝑡
2 𝜔

𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 = 𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 − 1 + 𝑞ሶ 𝜔 𝑡 ∙ 𝑇𝑆

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 There is one more possibility to compute the orientation quaternion. The main
differential equation:
1
𝑞ሶ = 𝝎 × 𝑞 = Ω 𝜔 ∙ 𝑞
2

has an iterative solution which can be written in the following form:

𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 = 𝑒 𝑇𝑆 ∙Ω 𝜔(𝑡) ∙ 𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 − 1

 By expanding the exponent function in Taylor’s series, we get the final solution:

∆𝜃 2 1
𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 = 𝐼4×4 1− + 𝑇𝑆 ∙ Ω 𝜔(𝑡) ∙ 𝑞ො𝜔 𝑡 − 1
8 2

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3.4

Practical Tasks
1. Capture Gyroscope measurements which correspond to the following test cases:
device is in level plane, wait 3-5 sec., then rotate it to 900 around X, Y or Z axis,
hold in rotated position 3-5 sec., then return back to initial position and wait for 3-5
sec. (log 1); perform the same as in test case 1 but three-four times (log 2);

2. Show the dependencies of Gyroscope vector components on time; explain the results
and prove why the plots correspond to the test cases;

3. Calculate angle values using all three methods discussed; analyze the results and
find the most accurate one;

4. Show and explain the pros and cons of angles estimation using Gyroscope
measurements only.

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