Abstract:

In this study, the implementation of a 6 Degree of Freedom (DOF) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) via the Kalman Filter is aimed. High accuracy IMU units have been in practical use since the first space navigation practices. Today, the need for IMU’s have been widespread among every aspect of life. The IMU sensors are mostly solid-state devices and are manufactured with Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS) technologies. The sensor noise has to be eliminated. The most popular method is the Kalman Filtering. The aim of this study is to better explain the IMU concept and make a practical implementation of the Kalman Filtering which is somehow complicated. In this study, a low cost IMU MEMS sensor has been selected and Kalman Filtering has been applied for both one and multi-dimensional outputs. The steps are explicitly explained to help the reader better understand the process. The study may be easily tailored to other sensor systems where noise is a concern.

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