Characterization of errors and noises in MEMS inertial sensors using Allan variance method

This thesis work has addressed the problems of characterizing and identifying the noises inherent to inertial sensors as gyros and accelerometers, which are embedded in inertial navigation systems, with the purpose of estimating the errors on the obtained position. The analysis of the Allan Variance method (AVAR) to characterize and identify the noises related to these sensors, has been done. The practical implementation of the AVAR method for the noises characterization has been performed over an experimental setup using the IMU 3DM-GX3 -25 data and the Matlab environment. From the AVAR plots it was possible to identify the Angle Random Walk and the Bias Instability in the gyros, and the Velocity Random Walk and Bias Instability in the accelerometers. A denoising process was also performed by using the Discrete Wavelet Transforms and the Median Filter. After the filtering the AVAR plots showed that the ARW was almost removed or attenuated using Wavelets, but not good results were obtained with the Median Filter

Development and Validation of an IMU/GPS/Galileo Integration Navigation System for UAV

Several and distinct Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV) applications are emerging, demanding steps to be taken in order to allow those platforms to operate in an un-segregated airspace. The key risk component, hindering the widespread integration of UAV in an un-segregated airspace, is the autonomous component: the need for a high level of autonomy in the UAV that guarantees a safe and secure integration in an un-segregated airspace. At this point, the UAV accurate state estimation plays a fundamental role for autonomous UAV, being one of the main responsibilities of the onboard autopilot. Given the 21st century global economic paradigm, academic projects based on inexpensive UAV platforms but on expensive commercial autopilots start to become a non-economic solution. Consequently, there is a pressing need to overcome this problem through, on one hand, the development of navigation systems using the high availability of low cost, low power consumption, and small size navigation sensors offered in the market, and, on the other hand, using Global Navigation Satellite Systems Software Receivers (GNSS SR). Since the performance that is required for several applications in order to allow UAV to fly in an un-segregated airspace is not yet defined, for most UAV academic applications, the navigation system accuracy required should be at least the same as the one provided by the available commercial autopilots. This research focuses on the investigation of the performance of an integrated navigation system composed by a low performance inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a GNSS SR. A strapdown mechanization algorithm, to transform raw inertial data into navigation solution, was developed, implemented and evaluated. To fuse the data provided by the strapdown algorithm with the one provided by the GNSS SR, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) was implemented in loose coupled closed-loop architecture, and then evaluated. Moreover, in order to improve the performance of the IMU raw data, the Allan variance and denoise techniques were considered for both studying the IMU error model and improving inertial sensors raw measurements. In order to carry out the study, a starting question was made and then, based on it, eight questions were derived. These eight secondary questions led to five hypotheses, which have been successfully tested along the thesis. This research provides a deliverable to the Project of Research and Technologies on Unmanned Air Vehicles (PITVANT) Group, consisting of a well-documented UAV Development and Validation of an IMU/GPS/Galileo Integration Navigation System for UAV II navigation algorithm, an implemented and evaluated navigation algorithm in the MatLab environment, and Allan variance and denoising algorithms to improve inertial raw data, enabling its full implementation in the existent Portuguese Air Force Academy (PAFA) UAV. The derivable provided by this thesis is the answer to the main research question, in such a way that it implements a step by step procedure on how the Strapdown IMU (SIMU)/GNSS SR should be developed and implemented in order to replace the commercial autopilot. The developed integrated SIMU/GNSS SR solution evaluated, in post-processing mode, through van-test scenario, using real data signals, at the Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE) test area in Berchtesgaden, Germany, when confronted with the solution provided by the commercial autopilot, proved to be of better quality. Although no centimetre-level of accuracy was obtained for the position and velocity, the results confirm that the integration strategy outperforms the Piccolo system performance, being this the ultimate goal of this research work

On Improving the Accuracy and Reliability of GPS/INS-Based Direct Sensor Georeferencing

Due to the complementary error characteristics of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS), their integration has become a core positioning component, providing high-accuracy direct sensor georeferencing for multi-sensor mobile mapping systems. Despite significant progress over the last decade, there is still a room for improvements of the georeferencing performance using specialized algorithmic approaches. The techniques considered in this dissertation include: (1) improved single-epoch GPS positioning method supporting network mode, as compared to the traditional real-time kinematic techniques using on-the-fly ambiguity resolution in a single-baseline mode; (2) customized random error modeling of inertial sensors; (3) wavelet-based signal denoising, specially for low-accuracy high-noise Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors; (4) nonlinear filters, namely the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and the Particle Filter (PF), proposed as alternatives to the commonly used traditional Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The network-based single-epoch positioning technique offers a better way to calibrate the inertial sensor, and then to achieve a fast, reliable and accurate navigation solution. Such an implementation provides a centimeter-level positioning accuracy independently on the baseline length. The advanced sensor error identification using the Allan Variance and Power Spectral Density (PSD) methods, combined with a wavelet-based signal de-noising technique, assures reliable and better description of the error characteristics, customized for each inertial sensor. These, in turn, lead to a more reliable and consistent position and orientation accuracy, even for the low-cost inertial sensors. With the aid of the wavelet de-noising technique and the customized error model, around 30 percent positioning accuracy improvement can be found, as compared to the solution using raw inertial measurements with the default manufacturer’s error models. The alternative filters, UKF and PF, provide more advanced data fusion techniques and allow the tolerance of larger initial alignment errors. They handle the unknown nonlinear dynamics better, in comparison to EKF, resulting in a more reliable and accurate integrated system. For the high-end inertial sensors, they provide only a slightly better performance in terms of the tolerance to the losses of GPS lock and orientation convergence speed, whereas the performance improvements are more pronounced for the low-cost inertial sensors

脳波信号解析に注目したノイズ除去、特徴抽出、実験観測応用を最適化する数理基盤に関する研究

Electroencephalography (EEG) data inevitably contains a large amount of noise particularly from ocular potentials in tasks with eye-movements and eye-blink, known as electrooculography (EOG) artifact, which has been a crucial issue in the braincomputer- interface (BCI) study. The eye-movements and eye-blinks have different time-frequency properties mixing together in EEGs of interest. This time-frequency characteristic has been substantially dealt with past proposed denoising algorithms relying on the consistent assumption based on the single noise component model. However, the traditional model is not simply applicable for biomedical signals consist of multiple signal components, such as weak EEG signals easily recognized as a noise because of the signal amplitude with respect to the EOG signal. In consideration of the realistic signal contamination, we newly designed the EEG-EOG signal contamination model for quantitative validations of the artifact removal from EEGs, and then proposed the two-stage wavelet shrinkage method with the undecimated wavelet decomposition (UDWT), which is suitable for the signal structure. The features of EEG-EOG signal has been extracted with existing decomposition methods known as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based on a consistent assumption of the orthogonality of signal vectors or statistical independence of signal components. In the viewpoint of the signal morphology such as spiking, waves and signal pattern transitions, A systematic decomposition method is proposed to identify the type of signal components or morphology on the basis of sparsity in time-frequency domain. Morphological Component Analysis (MCA) is extended the traditional concept of signal decomposition including Fourier and wavelet transforms and provided a way of reconstruction that guarantees accuracy in reconstruction by using multiple bases being independent of each other and uniqueness representation, called the concept of “dictionary”. MCA is applied to decompose the real EEG signal and clarified the best combination of dictionaries for the purpose. In this proposed semi-realistic biological signal analysis, target EEG data was prepared as mixture signals of artificial eye movements and blinks and iEEG recorded from electrodes embedded into the brain intracranially and then those signals were successfully decomposed into original types by a linear expansion of waveforms such as redundant transforms: UDWT, DCT,LDCT, DST and DIRAC. The result demonstrated that the most suitable combination for EEG data analysis was UDWT, DST and DIRAC to represent the baseline envelop, multi frequency wave forms and spiking activities individually as representative types of EEG morphologies. MCA proposed method is used in negative-going Bereitschaftspotential (BP). It is associated with the preparation and execution of voluntary movement. Thus far, the BP for simple movements involving either the upper or lower body segment has been studied. However, the BP has not yet been recorded during sit-to-stand movements, which use the upper and lower body segments. Electroencephalograms were recorded during movement. To detect the movement of the upper body segment, a gyro sensor was placed on the back, and to detect the movement of the lower body segment, an electromyogram (EMG) electrode was placed on the surface of the hamstrings and quadriceps. Our study revealed that a negative-going BP was evoked around -3 to -2 seconds before the onset of the upper body movement in the sit-to-stand movement in response to the start cue. The BP had a negative peak before the onset of the movement. The potential was followed by premotor positivity, a motor-related potential, and a reafferent potential. The BP for the sit-to-stand movement had a steeper negative slope (-0.8 to -0.001 seconds) just before the onset of the upper body movement. The slope correlated with the gyro peak and the max amplitude of hamstrings EMG. A BP negative peak value was correlated with the max amplitude of the hamstring EMG. These results suggested that the observed BP is involved in the preparation/execution for a sit-to-stand movement using the upper and lower body. In summary, this thesis is help to pave the practical approach of real time analysis of desired EEG signal of interest toward the implementation of rehabilitation device which may be used for motor disabled people. We also pointed out the EEG-EOG contamination model that helps in removal of the artifacts and explicit dictionaries are representing the EEG morphologies.九州工業大学博士学位論文 学位記番号:生工博甲第290号 学位授与年月日:平成29年3月24日1 Introduction|2 Research Background and Preliminaries|3 Introduction of Morphological Component Analysis|4 Two-Stage Undecimated Wavelet Shrinkage Method|5 Morphologically Decomposition of EEG Signals|6 Bereitschaftspotential for Rise to Stand-Up Behavior九州工業大学平成28年

Denoising Analysis of Partial Discharge Acoustic Signal Based on SVMD-PCA

Partial discharge (PD) acoustic signal detection is one of the effective means to assess the insulation status of power transformers. In actual monitoring, white noise is likely to cause strong interference to the partial discharge acoustic signal of the transformer, which seriously affects the discharge fault identification and monitoring results. In order to suppress the interference of white noise in partial discharge detection, this paper proposes an adaptive partial discharge based on the combination of variational mode decomposition (VMD) and principal component analysis (PCA) based on improved Spearman correlation coefficient. The white noise suppression method is analyzed for the separation and denoising of partial discharge acoustic signals in the environment of −10 ∼ 10 dB. Firstly, the Spearman correlation coefficient is used to determine the optimal number of decomposing modes of VMD. Then the decomposed modal components are adaptively reduced and reconstructed by principal component analysis to remove redundant clutter interference and reduce the influence of human error. Finally, through the simulation signal and actual discharge pulse acoustic signal are tested for denoising. The results show that SVMD-PCA can suppress the interference of white noise in partial discharge acoustic signals and extract clean discharge pulse signal characteristics, the method has enhanced anti-noise performance and can effectively suppress white noise interference

Analysis of partial discharge signals using digital signal processing techniques

Partial discharge (PD) measurements have emerged as a powerful diagnostic tool for condition monitoring of insulation in high voltage equipments. Study of PD patterns reveals the nature and severity of the defects present in the insulation. Nowadays online and onsite PD measurements are preferred to keep the equipment in service while assessing its condition. A major difficulty in such measurements is to extract the PD signal from severe noise and interferences. Various time and frequency domain de-noising techniques are adopted for the extraction of PD signal. Recent research shows that wavelet analysis is a powerful tool in de-noising PD signals. Wavelet analysis can be performed using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and second generation wavelet transform (SGWT) (also called lifting wavelet transform). In the wavelet analysis based de-noising of PD signals, selection of mother wavelet, maximum decomposition level, and thresholding rule are some of the important issues that affect the de-noising results. Further, time-frequency analysis of PD signal can be performed using S-transform. S-transform is an effective tool for the time-frequency analysis of a signal. This work applies different wavelet based de-noising techniques to five noisy PD signals having different characteristics. Among the five signals four signals are numerically simulated and one is a practical signal. The signals are de-noised using DWT and SGWT based de-noising schemes. The de-noising schemes adopt different types of mother wavelet selection methods, and thresholding rules. Based on the de-noising techniques, varied de-noising results are obtained. A comparative analysis of the de-noising results is made using various de-noising performance indices. Then the time-frequency analysis of the de-noised practical signal is made using S-transform. From the results of the work it emerges that wavelet analysis is a superior tool for the extraction of PD signals. And selection of mother wavelet and thresholding rule for the wavelet based de-noising, depends on the type of signal and the severity of noise and interferences

Navigation Sensor Stochastic Error Modeling and Nonlinear Estimation for Low-Cost Land Vehicle Navigation

The increasing use of low-cost inertial sensors in various mass-market applications necessitates their accurate stochastic modeling. Such task faces challenges due to outliers in the sensor measurements caused by internal and/or external factors. To optimize the navigation performance, robust estimation techniques are required to reduce the influence of outliers to the stochastic modeling process. The Generalized Method of Wavelet Moments (GMWM) and its Multi-signal extensions (MS-GMWM) represent the latest trend in the field of inertial sensor error stochastic analysis, they are capable of efficiently modeling the highly complex random errors displayed by low-cost and consumer-grade inertial sensors and provide very advantageous guarantees for the statistical properties of their estimation products. On the other hand, even though a robust version exists (RGMWM) for the single-signal method in order to protect the estimation process from the influence of outliers, their detection remains a challenging task, while such attribute has not yet been bestowed in the multi-signal approach. Moreover, the current implementation of the GMWM algorithm can be computationally intensive and does not provide the simplest (composite) model. In this work, a simplified implementation of the GMWM-based algorithm is presented along with techniques to reduce the complexity of the derived stochastic model under certain conditions. Also, it is shown via simulations that using the RGMWM every time, without the need for contamination existence confirmation, is a worthwhile trade-off between reducing the outlier effects and decreasing the estimator efficiency. Generally, stochastic modeling techniques, including the GMWM, make use of individual static signals for inference. However, it has been observed that when multiple static signal replicates are collected under the same conditions, they maintain the same model structure but exhibit variations in parameter values, a fact that called for the MS-GMWM. Here, a robust multi-signal method is introduced, based on the established GMWM framework and the Average Wavelet Variance (AWV) estimator, which encompasses two robustness levels: one for protection against outliers in each considered replicate and one to safeguard the estimation against the collection of signal replicates with significantly different behaviour than the majority. From that, two estimators are formulated, the Singly Robust AWV (SR-AWV) and the Doubly Robust (DR-AWV) and their model parameter estimation efficiency is confirmed under different data contamination scenarios in simulation and case studies. Furthermore, a hybrid case study is conducted that establishes a connection between model parameter estimation quality and implied navigation performance in those data contamination settings. Finally, the performance of the new technique is compared to the conventional Allan Variance in a land vehicle navigation experiment, where the inertial information is fused with an auxiliary source and vehicle movement constraints using the Extended and Unscented Kalman Filters (EKF/UKF). Notably, the results indicate that under linear-static conditions, the UKF with the new method provides a 16.8-17.3% improvement in 3D orientation compared to the conventional setting (AV with EKF), while the EKF gives a 7.5-9.7% improvement. Also, in dynamic conditions (i.e., turns), the UKF demonstrates an 14.7-17.8% improvement in horizontal positioning and an 11.9-12.5% in terms of 3D orientation, while the EKF has an 8.3-12.8% and an 11.4-11.7% improvement respectively. Overall, the UKF appears to perform better but has a significantly higher computational load compared to the EKF. Hence, the EKF appears to be a more realistic option for real-time applications such as autonomous vehicle navigation