Abstract
An attitude sensing system using thermopile sensors and inertial sensors was proposed. The output model of the thermopile sensor was constructed from the calibration experiment and the theoretical calculations. The estimation algorithm of the attitude angles was developed from the sensor output models using extended Kalman filter. Because thermopile sensor output correlates with attitude to the ground directly, the error of inertial sensors can be compensated. Additionally, the proposed system consists of commercial low-cost product. Numerical simulations and experiment were carried out and the performance was validated. Experimental result shows that the proposed system has precision of approximately 1.2°.
