Adaptive filter for a miniature MEMS based attitude and heading reference system

An extended Kalman filter with adaptive gain was used to build a miniature attitude and heading reference system based on a stochastic model. The adaptive filter has six states with a time variable transition matrix. When the system is in the non-acceleration mode, the accelerometer measurements of the gravity and the compass measurements of the heading have observability and yield good estimates of the states. When the system is in the high dynamic mode and the bias has converged to an accurate estimate, the attitude calculation will be maintained for a long interval of time. The adaptive filter tunes its gain automatically based on the system dynamics sensed by the accelerometers to yield optimal performance.