Global Positioning System (GPS): A Low-Cost Velocity Sensor for Correcting Inertial Sensor Errors on Ground Vehicles

This paper demonstrates the ability of a standard low-cost Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to reduce errors inherent in low-cost accelerometers and rate gyroscopes used on ground vehicles. Specifically GPS velocity is used to obtain vehicle course, velocity, and road grade, as well as to correct inertial sensors errors, providing accurate longitudinal and lateral acceleration, and pitch, roll, and yaw angular velocities. Additionally, it is shown that transient changes in sideslip (or lateral velocity), roll, and pitch angles can be measured. The method utilizes GPS velocity measurements to determine the inertial sensor errors using a kinematic Kalman Filter estimator. Simple models of the inertial sensors, which take into account the sensor noise and bias drift properties, are developed and used to design the estimator. Based on the characteristics of low-cost GPS receivers and IMU sensors, this paper presents the achievable performance of the combined system using the covariance analysis from the Kalman filter. Subsequent simulations and experiments validate both the error analysis and the methodology for utilizing GPS as a velocity sensor for correcting low-cost inertial sensor errors and providing critical vehicle state measurements.