Integrating inertial sensors with global positioning system (GPS) for vehicle dynamics control

This paper demonstrates a method of estimating several key vehicle states-sideslip angle, longitudinal velocity, roll and grade-by combining automotive grade inertial sensors with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Kinematic Kalman filters that are independent of uncertain vehicle parameters integrate the inertial sensors with GPS to provide high update estimates of the vehicle states and the sensor biases. Using a two-antenna GPS system, the effects of pitch and roll on the measurements call be quantified and are demonstrated to be quite significant in sideslip angle estimation. Employing the same GPS system as all input to the estimator, this paper develops a method that compensates for roll and pitch effects to improve the accuracy of the vehicle state and sensor bias estimates. In addition, calibration procedures for the sensitivity and cross-coupling of inertial sensors are provided to further reduce measurement error. The resulting state estimates compare well to the results from calibrated models and Kalman filter predictions and are clean enough to use in vehicle dynamics control systems without additional filtering.