Automatic Guidance Algorism Based on Sensor Fusion of Geomagnetic Direction Sensor and Gyroscope (Part 1)

Sensor fusion composed of Kalman filter

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop an automatic guidance system composed of relatively low cost sensors. As a navigation sensor, we used a geomagnetic direction sensor (GDS) and a gyroscope. To increase the accuracy of these sensors outputs and guidance performance, these sensor output were integrated by sensor fusion technique. In the paper, a fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) was applied as a gyroscope. To evaluate the performance of these sensors for utilizing on an automatic guidance, and to confirm the effect of sensor fusion technique, the automatic guidance test was conducted on a paddy field. A kalman filter was employed as sensor fusion method. The kinematics of a vehicle was modeled and a heading error and a lateral offset were estimated by the kalman filter. The developed fusion technique was able to control the vehicle automatically with higher accuracy compared to that using single navigation sensor.