An Adaptive Multi-Sensor Positioning System for Personal Navigation

Abstract

MEMS sensors, such as accelerometers, gyros and barometers are being widely suggested for augmentation to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Combining such sensor provided information loosely to GNSS positioning is, nevertheless, very demanding and plenty of adaptability is needed in order to obtain sufficient positioning accuracy and acceptable service availability. This paper presents a low-cost multi-sensor positioning system that includes a high-degree of adaptability; environment detection for adaptive filter coefficient steering and measurement rejection. The system analyzed includes a commercial GPS receiver, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a 2-axis digital compass; and the measurements from the different sources are combined in a central Kalman filter. Test results are presented of the adaptive system and the shown performance demonstrates the usefulness of the adaptive low-cost multi-sensor usage with respect to a standalone high-sensitivity GPS solution.