Mobile Robotic Spatial Odometry by Low-Cost IMUs

Abstract

This paper shows the use of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) low-cost inertial measurement units (IMUs) to realize absolute odometry information for a mobile vehicle or field robotics, by providing the rotation angle of a wheel and its suspensions with respect to gravity. In addition, with the proposed algorithm we calculate the yaw and roll angle information for the bogie by integrating the output of the rotation gyroscope, which decreases the angle drift considerably. A test bed was set up to validate the algorithm, and the results are analyzed in detail.