Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems for Positioning Mobile Robots—MEMS Gyroscopes Random Errors Analysis Using Allan Variance Method

A problem of estimating the movement and orientation of a mobile robot is examined in this paper. The strapdown inertial navigation systems are often engaged to solve this common obstacle. The most important and critically sensitive component of such positioning approximation system is a gyroscope. Thus, we analyze here the random error components of the gyroscope, such as bias instability and random rate walk, as well as those that cause the presence of white and exponentially correlated (Markov) noise and perform an optimization of these parameters. The MEMS gyroscopes of InvenSense MPU-6050 type for each axis of the gyroscope with a sampling frequency of 70 Hz are investigated, as a result, Allan variance graphs and the values of bias instability coefficient and angle random walk for each axis are determined. It was found that in the output signals of the gyroscopes there is no Markov noise and random rate walk, and the X and Z axes are noisier than the Y axis. In the process of inertial measurement unit (IMU) calibration, the correction coefficients are calculated, which allow partial compensating the influence of destabilizing factors and determining the perpendicularity inaccuracy for sensitivity axes, and the conversion coefficients for each axis, which transform the sensor source codes into the measure unit and bias for each axis. The output signals of the calibrated gyroscope are noisy and offset from zero to all axes, so processing accelerometer and gyroscope data by the alpha-beta filter or Kalman filter is required to reduce noise influence.