Determining sensor orientation in indoor navigation

• US 9,677,888 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2015
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Senion AB (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SenionLab AB
• Inventors: Skoglar, Per, Tornqvist, David, Gustafsson, Fredrik
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, JELANI A
• Application Number:
  US14/736,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20160363448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/183 Compensation of inertial measurements, e.g. for temperature effects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/188 for accumulated errors, e.g. by coupling inertial systems with absolute positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 25/005 initial alignment, calibration or starting-up of inertial devices

Abstract

A method and system are provided for improved pedestrian dead reckoning. In an embodiment, the crab angle of a device, i.e., the angle by which the device direction of travel differs from the device orientation, is determined via the processing of measurements from a vector accelerometer. The measured acceleration vector is rotated so that one component is vertical, and the crab angle is then found by determining a horizontal direction having the greatest energy. Correlations between the two horizontal acceleration components and the vertical acceleration component may be computed to determine the user'"'"'s gait, further improving dead reckoning, e.g., for improving indoor position resolution.

Claims

1. A method for determining a crab angle of a portable electronic device carried by a user, wherein the crab angle is an angle by which the device direction of travel differs from the device orientation, and wherein the device is provided with a vector accelerometer, the method comprising:

detecting a step of the user at a fixed phase of the user'"'"'s step cycle using the vector accelerometer and acquiring a plurality of acceleration vectors;

projecting each acceleration vector into a horizontal plane that is perpendicular to a vertical direction;

determining an energy vector for each projected acceleration vector over one step cycle; and

computing the device crab angle by finding a direction in the horizontal plane having maximal energy associated therewith.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising computing correlations between two projected horizontal acceleration components and a vertical acceleration component to find an acceleration that is due to a gait of the user.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2, further comprising performing synchronous averaging of the computed correlations to improve crab angle estimates.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising using the crab angle to correct a compass angle, in order to improve pedestrian dead reckoning.

5. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the device is provided with a gyroscope sensor, further comprising using the crab angle to validate course changes measured by the gyroscope sensor in order to improve pedestrian dead reckoning.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5, further comprising performing pedestrian dead reckoning during indoor position resolution.

8. The portable electronic device in accordance with claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to compute correlations between two horizontal acceleration components and a vertical acceleration to find the acceleration that is due to a gait of the user.

9. The portable electronic device in accordance with claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to detect a gait of a user holding the device and perform synchronous averaging of the computed correlations to improve crab angle estimates.

10. The portable electronic device in accordance with claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to correct a compass angle using the crab angle in order to improve pedestrian dead reckoning.

7. A portable electronic device that provides pedestrian dead reckoning, the portable electronic device comprising:

an accelerometer for detecting an acceleration vector; and

a processor, the processor being configured to detect a step of a user at a fixed phase of the user'"'"'s step cycle using the vector accelerometer and acquiring a plurality of acceleration vectors and project the acceleration vectors into a horizontal plane perpendicular to a vertical direction, determine an energy vector for each projected acceleration vector over one step cycle and compute a crab angle of the device by determining a direction in the horizontal plane with maximal energy, wherein the crab angle is an angle by which the determined direction differs from the device orientation.

11. The portable electronic device in accordance with claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to use the crab angle to validate course changes measured by the gyroscopes, in order to improve pedestrian dead reckoning.

12. The portable electronic device in accordance with claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to perform pedestrian dead reckoning during indoor position resolution.