Calibration of low-cost three axis accelerometer with differential evolution

Abstract

The accelerometers are used in wide range of engineering applications. However, the accuracy of accelerometer readings is influenced by many factors such as sensor errors (scale factors, nonorthogonality, and offsets); therefore, the accelerometer calibration is necessary before its use in advanced applications. This research paper describes calibration methods for three axis low-cost MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) accelerometer. The first calibration algorithm uses traditional method (least square method). This method is furthermore compared with the second calibration method which uses differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The sensor error model (SEM) consists of three scale factors, three non-orthogonality errors, and three offsets. The performance of these methods is analysed in experiment on three axis low-cost accelerometer LSM303DLHC. The accelerometer readings were obtained in several precise angles. The experimental tests are conducted, and then the results are discussed and compared. The results show that the calibration error is least using DE algorithm.