choose inertial sensor fusion filters
the toolbox provides multiple filters to estimate the pose and velocity of platforms by using on-board inertial sensors (including accelerometer, gyroscope, and altimeter), magnetometer, gps, and visual odometry measurements. each filter can process certain types of measurements from certain sensors. each filter also makes assumptions and may have limitations that you should consider carefully before applying it. for example, many filters assume no sustained linear or angular acceleration other than the gravitational acceleration of 9.81m/s2. therefore, you should avoid using them during strong and constant acceleration, but these filters can perform reasonably well during short linear acceleration bursts. also, some filters allow piecewise constant linear acceleration and angular velocity since they allow acceleration and angular velocity inputs during the prediction step.
the internal algorithms of these filters also vary greatly. for example, the object uses the triad method to determine the orientation of the platform with very low computation cost. many filters (such as and ) adopt the error-state kalman filter, in which the state deviation from the reference state is estimated. meanwhile, other filters (such as and ) use the extended kalman filter approach, in which the state is estimated directly.
to achieve high estimation accuracy, it is important to tune the filter properties and
parameters properly. the toolbox offers the built-in tune
function to
tune parameters and sensor noise for most of the inertial sensor filters (marked as tunable
in the table below).
the table lists the inputs, outputs, assumptions, and algorithms for all the configured inertial sensor fusion filters.
tip
other than the filters listed in this table, you can use the object to build a flexible inertial sensor fusion framework, in which you can use built-in or custom motion models and sensor models. for more details, see .
object | sensors and inputs | states and outputs | assumptions or limitations | algorithm used | tunable |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
| orientation | the filter assumes no sustained linear and angular acceleration other than gravitational acceleration. | triad method | no | |
| orientation and angular velocity | the filter assumes no sustained linear and angular acceleration other than gravitational acceleration. | error-state kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation, altitude, vertical velocity, delta angle bias, delta velocity bias, geomagnetic field vector, magnetometer bias | the filter assumes piecewise constant linear acceleration in the vertical direction, and no sustained linear and angular acceleration other than gravitational acceleration in other directions. | discrete extended kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation and angular velocity | the filter assumes no sustained linear and angular acceleration other than gravitational acceleration. | error-state kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation and angular velocity | the filter assumes no sustained linear and angular acceleration other than gravitational acceleration. | non-kalman filter based approach:
| no | |
| orientation, position, velocity, delta angle bias, delta velocity bias, geomagnetic field vector, magnetometer bias | the prediction step takes the accelerometer and gyroscope inputs. therefore, the filter assumes:
| discrete extended kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation, angular velocity, position, velocity, acceleration, accelerometer bias, gyroscope bias, geomagnetic field vector, magnetometer bias | the filter assumes:
the filter does not require the sensors to be synchronous and each sensor can have sample dropping. | continuous discrete extended kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation, position, velocity, gyroscope bias, accelerometer bias | the prediction step takes the accelerometer and gyroscope inputs. therefore, the filter assumes:
also, the filter assumes the platform moves forward without side slip. | discrete extended kalman filter | yes | |
| orientation, position, velocity, gyroscope bias, accelerometer bias, and visual odometry scale | the prediction step takes the accelerometer and gyroscope inputs. therefore, the filter assumes:
| error-state kalman filter | yes |