METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DATA FUSION OF A THREE-AXIS MAGNETOMETER AND THREE AXIS ACCELEROMETER
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of fusing data from a three-axis magnetometer and a three-axis accelerometer to provide a magnetic heading of a device, the method comprising:
- receiving magnetic field measurements from the magnetometer associated with the device;
receiving acceleration measurements from the accelerometer associated with the device;
filtering the magnetic field measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered magnetic field data;
filtering the acceleration measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered acceleration measurements;
correcting the filtered acceleration measurements as a function of one or more error sources and obtaining corrected acceleration measurements;
correcting the filtered magnetic field data for hard-iron and soft-iron distortions and obtaining corrected magnetic field measurements;
computing quasi-static roll and pitch angles of the device as a function of the corrected acceleration measurements;
forming a transformation matrix from a body frame to a level coordinate frame as a function of the computed quasi-static roll and pitch angles;
transforming the corrected magnetic field measurements from the body frame to the level frame and generating a horizontal magnetic field vector; and
determining a magnetic heading of the device as a function of the generated horizontal magnetic field vector.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method and apparatus of integrating a three-axis magnetometer and a three-axis accelerometer to provide attitude and heading, calibrated magnetometer and accelerometer data, and angular rate, while removing sensor error sources over time and temperature and to compensate for hard and soft iron distortions of the Earth magnetic field. Filtered accelerometer data are corrected to account for various error sources. The magnetic heading is calculated from a horizontal magnetic field vector transformed from three dimensional Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector by using quasi-static roll and pitch angles from the filtered accelerometer data. A first Kalman filter estimates the state vector, based on the principle that the magnitude of local Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector is constant, to form hard and soft iron correction matrices. A second Kalman filter estimates a correction matrix of coupled remaining soft iron and the misalignment of the magnetometer and the accelerometer, as the dot product of local Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector and a corrected gravitational acceleration vector, at a quasi-static position, is constant. The three dimensional Earth'"'"'s magnetic field vector is received by removing the hard and soft irons through the soft iron and hard iron correction matrixes.
32 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of fusing data from a three-axis magnetometer and a three-axis accelerometer to provide a magnetic heading of a device, the method comprising:
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receiving magnetic field measurements from the magnetometer associated with the device; receiving acceleration measurements from the accelerometer associated with the device; filtering the magnetic field measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered magnetic field data; filtering the acceleration measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered acceleration measurements; correcting the filtered acceleration measurements as a function of one or more error sources and obtaining corrected acceleration measurements; correcting the filtered magnetic field data for hard-iron and soft-iron distortions and obtaining corrected magnetic field measurements; computing quasi-static roll and pitch angles of the device as a function of the corrected acceleration measurements; forming a transformation matrix from a body frame to a level coordinate frame as a function of the computed quasi-static roll and pitch angles; transforming the corrected magnetic field measurements from the body frame to the level frame and generating a horizontal magnetic field vector; and determining a magnetic heading of the device as a function of the generated horizontal magnetic field vector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer system including a storage device storing computer instructions that, when executed by a computer, implements a method of fusing data from a three-axis magnetometer and a three-axis accelerometer to provide a magnetic heading of a corresponding device, the method comprising:
receiving magnetic field measurements from the magnetometer associated with the device; receiving acceleration measurements from the accelerometer associated with the device; filtering the magnetic field measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered magnetic field data; filtering the acceleration measurements to remove outlying data points and noise and obtaining filtered acceleration measurements; correcting the filtered acceleration measurements as a function of one or more error sources and obtaining corrected acceleration measurements; correcting the filtered magnetic field data for hard-iron and soft-iron distortions and obtaining corrected magnetic field measurements; computing quasi-static roll and pitch angles of the device as a function of the corrected acceleration measurements; forming a transformation matrix from a body frame to a level coordinate frame as a function of the computed quasi-static roll and pitch angles; transforming the corrected magnetic field measurements from the body frame to the level frame and generating a horizontal magnetic field vector; and determining a magnetic heading of the device as a function of the generated horizontal magnetic field vector. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Specification