Apparatuses and Methods for Estimating the Yaw Angle of a Device in a Gravitational Reference System Using Measurements of Motion Sensors and a Magnetometer Attached to the Device

• US 20130185018A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 07/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: IDHL Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IDHL Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sheng, Hua
• Application Number:
  US13/824,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185018A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/153
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/00 Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of electric or magnetic techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/003 for measuring position, not involving coordinate determination coordinate measuring G01B7/004
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/30 for measuring angles or tapers; for testing the alignment of axes
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1654 with electromagnetic compass

Abstract

Methods for estimating a yaw angle of a body reference system of a device relative to a gravitational reference system using motion sensors and a magnetometer attached to the device are provided. A method includes (A) receiving measurements from the motion sensors and the magnetometer, (B) determining a measured 3-D magnetic field, a roll, a pitch and a raw estimate of yaw in the body reference system based on the received measurements, (C) extracting a local 3-D magnetic field from the measured 3-D magnetic field, and (D) calculating yaw angle of the body reference system in the gravitational reference system based on the extracted local 3-D magnetic, the roll, the pitch and the raw estimate of yaw using at least two different methods, wherein estimated errors of the roll, the pitch, and the extracted local 3-D magnetic field affect an error of the yaw differently for the different methods.

Claims

1. A method for estimating a yaw angle of a body reference system of a device relative to a gravitational reference system, using motion sensors and a magnetometer attached to the device, the method comprising:

receiving measurements from the motion sensors and from the magnetometer;

determining a measured 3-D magnetic field, a roll angle, a pitch angle and a raw estimate of yaw angle of the device in the body reference system based on the received measurements;

extracting a local 3-D magnetic field from the measured 3-D magnetic field; and

calculating a tilt-compensated yaw angle of the body reference system of the device in the gravitational reference system based on the extracted local 3-D magnetic, the roll angle, the pitch angle and the raw estimate of yaw angle using at least two different methods, wherein an error of the roll angle estimate, an error of the pitch angle estimate, and an error of the extracted local 3-D magnetic field affect the error of the tilt-compensated yaw angle differently for the at least two different methods.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the local 3-D magnetic field is corrected for one or more of soft-iron effect, hard-iron effect and relative alignment of the magnetometer relative to the body reference system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the local 3-D magnetic field is compensated for dynamic near fields.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gravitational reference system is an Earth-fixed orthogonal reference system defined relative to gravity and an Earth'"'"'s magnetic field direction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received measurements are concurrent measurements.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the local 3-D magnetic field is compensated for dynamic near fields based on tracking evolution of the measured 3-D magnetic field.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the measured 3-D magnetic field is calculated using parameters related to sensor'"'"'s intrinsic characteristics.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the parameters related to sensor'"'"'s intrinsic characteristics include one or more of an offset, a scale and a skew/cross-coupling matrix.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the motion sensors include an accelerometer whose measurements are used to determine a tilt of the body reference system of the device relative to gravity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating includes estimating an error of the tilt compensated yaw angle.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating includes:

obtaining roll and pitch in another reference system related to the device and having a z-axis along gravity, and

estimating a static magnetic field in the gravitational reference system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the obtaining includes estimating an angle between the static local magnetic field and a direction opposite to gravity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein errors of the tilt compensated yaw angle calculated using each of the at least two different methods are estimated, and a value of the tilt compensated yaw angle corresponding to a smallest of the estimated errors is output.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two methods calculates the yaw angle to as

15. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two methods calculates the yaw angle to as

16. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two methods calculates the yaw angle to as

17. The method of claim 6, wherein dynamic near fields are tracked using first values of the measured 3-D magnetic field corresponding to different time steps and second values of the magnetic field that are predicted using a magnetic field model, wherein the first values and the second values are compared to determine whether the measured 3-D magnetic field is different from what the magnetic field model predicts.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein if a result of comparing is that the measured 3-D magnetic field is not different from what the magnetic field model predicts, an error of yaw angle is estimated.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein if a result of comparing is that the measured 3-D magnetic field is not different from what the magnetic field model predicts, an error of roll angle is estimated.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein if a result of comparing is that the measured 3-D magnetic field is not different from what the magnetic field model predicts, an error of pitch angle is estimated.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein if a result of comparing is that the measured 3-D magnetic field is different from what the magnetic field model predicts, the magnetic field model is updated.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the motion sensors includes inertial sensors whose measurements yield an inertial sensor yaw angle, and

the calculating includes determining a best yaw angle estimate based on the tilt compensated yaw angle and the inertial sensor yaw angle,

wherein the determining of the best yaw estimate includes computing errors associated with the tilt compensated yaw angle and the inertial sensor yaw angle.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the determining includes using an adaptive filter to combine the tilt compensated yaw angle and the inertial sensor yaw angle.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the determining includes calculating an adaptive filter'"'"'s gain coefficient using a computed total estimate error based on one or more of calibration accuracy, a yaw angle computation error resulting from sensor noise, roll and pitch estimate error, and a near field compensation error.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient is a ratio of an absolute value of an innovation variable divided by the total estimate error, the innovation variable being a difference between a current yaw angle inferred from magnetometer measurements and a predicted best estimate of yaw angle from a previous output of the adaptive filter.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient is a ratio of a first square of a predicted yaw error when using the inertial sensors and a second square of the total estimate error.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient is 1 if the total estimate error is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, and, otherwise is a function of a ratio of an absolute value of an innovation variable divided by a predicted yaw angle error when using the inertial sensors, the innovation variable being a difference between a current yaw angle inferred from magnetometer measurements and a predicted best estimate of yaw angle from a previous output of the adaptive filter.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient is 1 if an innovation variable is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, and, otherwise is a predetermined small value.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient is a product of two or more of:

(1) a ratio of an absolute value of an innovation variable divided by the total estimate error,

(2) a ratio of a first square of a predicted yaw error when using the inertial sensors and a second square of the total estimate error,

(3) 1 if the total estimate error is smaller than a first predetermined threshold value, and, otherwise, a function of a ratio of an absolute value of the innovation variable divided by the predicted yaw angle error when using the inertial sensors,

(4) 1 if the innovation variable is smaller than a second predetermined threshold value, and, otherwise, a predetermined small value, and

the innovation variable being a difference between a current yaw angle inferred from magnetometer measurements and a predicted best estimate of yaw angle from a previous output of the adaptive filter.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the best yaw angle estimate is a sum of a predicted yaw angle from the inertial sensors based on a best yaw estimate from a previous step and a product of an innovation variable and a function of the adaptive filter'"'"'s coefficient, the innovation variable being a difference between a current yaw angle inferred from magnetometer measurements and a predicted best estimate of yaw angle from a previous output of the adaptive filter.

31. An apparatus, comprising:

a device having a rigid body;

a 3-D magnetometer mounted on the device and configured to generate measurements corresponding to a local magnetic field;

motion sensors mounted on the device and configured to generate measurements corresponding to orientation of the rigid body; and

at least one processing unit configured

(1) to receive measurements from the motion sensors and from the magnetometer;

(2) to determine a measured 3-D magnetic field, a roll angle, a pitch angle and a raw estimate of yaw angle of the device in the body reference system based on the received measurements;

(3) to extract a local 3-D magnetic field from the measured 3-D magnetic field; and

(4) to calculate a tilt-compensated yaw angle of the body reference system of the device in the gravitational reference system based on the extracted local 3-D magnetic, the roll angle, the pitch angle and the raw estimate of yaw angle using at least two different methods, wherein an error of the roll angle estimate, an error of the pitch angle estimate, and an error of the extracted local 3-D magnetic field affect the error of the tilt-compensated yaw angle differently for the at least two different methods.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the at least one processing unit includes a processing unit disposed within the device which is configured to executed at least one of (1)-(4).

33. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the at least one processing unit includes a processing unit located remotely and configured to execute at least one of (1)-(4), and the apparatus further comprises a transmitter mounted on the device and configured to transmit data to the processing unit located remotely.

34. A computer readable storage medium configured to store executable codes which when executed on a computer make the computer to perform a method for estimating a yaw angle of a body reference system of a device relative to a gravitational reference system, using motion sensors and a magnetometer attached to the device, the method comprising:

receiving measurements from the motion sensors and from the magnetometer;

determining a measured 3-D magnetic field, a roll angle, a pitch angle and a raw estimate of yaw angle of the device in the body reference system based on the received measurements;

extracting a local 3-D magnetic field from the measured 3-D magnetic field; and

calculating a tilt-compensated yaw angle of the body reference system of the device in the gravitational reference system based on the extracted local 3-D magnetic, the roll angle, the pitch angle and the raw estimate of yaw angle using at least two different methods, wherein an error of the roll angle estimate, an error of the pitch angle estimate, and an error of the extracted local 3-D magnetic field affect the error of the tilt-compensated yaw angle differently for the at least two different methods.