Sensor Stability of a Low-Cost Attitude Sensor Suitable for Micro Air Vehicles

Gabriel Hugh Elkaim and Christopher C. Foster

Abstract:	This paper expands on previous work to introduce a high quality, but low cost attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), that is physically small, lightweight, and lowpower. Previous Work on the sensor has shown that for non-accelerating environments, this small low-cost sensor has a short term accuracy of approximately 1/4 degree in pitch, roll, and yaw. We extend the previous two-step non-linear calibration algorithm to account for non-orthogonality in the sensor axes, and also correlate the measured temperature of the sensor against the long term bias stability. Further bias stability is investigated using the Allan Variance, demonstrating that with temperature correction, the static attitude solution has approximately 1/2 the standard deviation as without temperature correction. When the data is averaged to a 1Hz data rate, the 24 hour standard deviations vary from 0.017 degree to 0.06 degree for pitch, roll, and yaw.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2007 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	756 - 770
Cite this article:	Elkaim, Gabriel Hugh, Foster, Christopher C., "Sensor Stability of a Low-Cost Attitude Sensor Suitable for Micro Air Vehicles," Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2007, pp. 756-770.
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