Attitude and Heading Estimation in Symmetrical Inertial Arrays

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Libero, Yaakov, Klein, Itzik
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Libero, Yaakov
Klein, Itzik
author_facet Libero, Yaakov
Klein, Itzik
contents Attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS) play a central role in autonomous navigation systems on land, air and maritime platforms. AHRS utilize inertial sensor measurements to estimate platform orientation. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in multiple inertial measurement units (MIMU) arrays to improve navigation accuracy and robustness. A particularly challenging MIMU implementation is the gyro-free (GF) configuration, in which angular velocity is derived solely from accelerometer measurements. While the GF configurations have multiple benefits, including outlier detection and in angular acceleration measurements, their main drawbacks are inherent instability and an increased divergence rate. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a novel symmetrical MIMU formulation, in which the IMUs are arranged in symmetric diagonal pairs to decouple linear and rotational acceleration components. To this end, we derive the theoretical foundations for the symmetrical MIMU formulation of the GF equations, develop a nonlinear least squares estimation process, and integrate statistical hypothesis testing into an AHRS error-state extended Kalman filter. We validate our approach using real-world datasets containing 85 minutes of navigation data recorded on both airborne and land platforms. Our results demonstrated a 30\% average reduction in attitude estimation errors, rotation detection accuracy exceeding 95\% improvement, and significantly improved stability compared to a standard GF implementation. These results enable reliable GF navigation in applications where gyroscopes are unavailable, unreliable, or energy-constrained. Common examples include miniature platforms, computational-constraint platforms, and long-endurance marine platforms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_08161
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Attitude and Heading Estimation in Symmetrical Inertial Arrays
Libero, Yaakov
Klein, Itzik
Signal Processing
Attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS) play a central role in autonomous navigation systems on land, air and maritime platforms. AHRS utilize inertial sensor measurements to estimate platform orientation. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in multiple inertial measurement units (MIMU) arrays to improve navigation accuracy and robustness. A particularly challenging MIMU implementation is the gyro-free (GF) configuration, in which angular velocity is derived solely from accelerometer measurements. While the GF configurations have multiple benefits, including outlier detection and in angular acceleration measurements, their main drawbacks are inherent instability and an increased divergence rate. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a novel symmetrical MIMU formulation, in which the IMUs are arranged in symmetric diagonal pairs to decouple linear and rotational acceleration components. To this end, we derive the theoretical foundations for the symmetrical MIMU formulation of the GF equations, develop a nonlinear least squares estimation process, and integrate statistical hypothesis testing into an AHRS error-state extended Kalman filter. We validate our approach using real-world datasets containing 85 minutes of navigation data recorded on both airborne and land platforms. Our results demonstrated a 30\% average reduction in attitude estimation errors, rotation detection accuracy exceeding 95\% improvement, and significantly improved stability compared to a standard GF implementation. These results enable reliable GF navigation in applications where gyroscopes are unavailable, unreliable, or energy-constrained. Common examples include miniature platforms, computational-constraint platforms, and long-endurance marine platforms.
title Attitude and Heading Estimation in Symmetrical Inertial Arrays
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.08161