Design and implementation of a low-cost observer-based attitude and heading reference system
Résumé
A nonlinear observer (i.e. a “filter”) is proposed for estimating the attitude of a flying rigid body, using measurements from low-cost inertial and magnetic sensors. It has by design a nice geometrical structure appealing from an engineering viewpoint; it is easy to tune, computationally very thrifty, and with guaranteed (at least local) convergence around every trajectory. Moreover it behaves sensibly in the presence of acceleration and magnetic disturbances. Experimental comparisons with a commercial device illustrate its good performance; an implementation on an 8-bit microcontroller with very limited processing power demonstrates its computational simplicity.