Self-calibration for IMU/Odometer Land Navigation: Simulation and Test Results

Determination of sensors misalignment is a common problem for any real system combining information from more than one sensor. This paper considers the selfcalibration of misalignment parameters in IMU/Odometer integration with the help of GPS. The misalignment determination is very important in order to incorporate the odometer information and the nonholonomic constraint to improve vehicle navigation, but so far has been largely neglected or less seriously treated. In this paper, we summarize the main theoretical feasibility results in our previous works and devote ourselves to simulations and a real test with a tactical grade IMU, the LN200 from Northrop Grumman, partially as a support of previous analyses. It shows that with the aid of differential GPS, two IMU-vehicle misaligning angles, the odometer lever arm and scale factor, as well as the GPS antenna lever arm can be automatically calibrated with satisfying accuracy.