Development of electronic compass for indoor mobile robot

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient MEMS gyro aided automatic calibration algorithm for three-axis magnetic compass. This electronic compass module consists of a three-axis magnetic sensor, a two-axis inclinometer and a MEMS gyro. The magnetic electronic compass is used to determine the heading of a indoor mobile robot with respect to the magnetic North. The automatic calibration method requires the mobile robot to make three full 360-degree rotation. In this rotation procedure, magnetic field data, attitude data and angular rate data are recorded. According to magnetic field data and attitude data, raw heading data is calculated. This raw heading data is verified by angular rate data from MEMS gyro. Results of experiment show that the accuracy of calibrated compass is better that 1 deg and MEMS gyro aided automatic calibration algorithm is effective for electronic compass. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.