Part 5: IMU - Kalman Filter Orientation Estimator

List of parts to blog:
Part 1: Quadcopter Design
Part 2: Integrating rc Transmitter and Receiver with Arduino
Part 3: ESC and motors (wiring and code)
Part 4: Sensors (reading in raw data and applying calibration)
Part 5: IMU - Kalman Filter Orientation Estimator
Part 6: Discussion on Arduino (boards and oddities)
Part 7: Designing a shield for the Due
Part 8: Control Laws!!!!!


Part 5: IMU - Kalman Filter Orientation Estimator

Part 5A: Quaternion based Kalman Filter design





The kalman filter is the optimal estimator but comes at the price of computational time. There is a lot of matrix math and a matrix inversion that has to be done. But with the Arduino Due I should have plenty of power to handle it.


Part 5B: Simulink/Matlab simulation testing/tuning
I designed the Kalman filer and tuned it in Matlab/Simulink. I recorded data from my sensors and built up a noise model. Then fed the data into a kalman flter block running the same C-code as I put on the Arduino.

Part 5C: Arduino Code