Implementation and evaluation of an Ins system for the Shepherd Rotary Vehicle
By: Thorsten Leonardy
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 101
Description: An autonomous vehicle must be able to determine its global position even in the absence of external information input. To obtain reliable position information, this would require the integration of multiple navigation sensors and the optimal fusion of the navigation data provided by them. The approach taken in this thesis was to implement two navigation sensors for a four-wheel drive and steer autonomous vehicle: An inertial measurement unit providing linear acceleration in three dimensions and angular velocity for the vehicle's global motion and shaft encoders providing local motion parameters. An inertial measurement unit is integrated with the Shepherd mobile robot and data acquisition and processing software is developed. Position estimation based on shaft encoder readings is implemented. The framework for future analysis including most general motion profiles have been laid The sensor's system performance was evaluated using three different linear motion profiles. Test results indicate that the shaft encoder provide a positioning accuracy better than 99% (typ. 7.5 mm for 1 m motion) under no slip conditions for pure translational motion. The IMU still requires further improvement to allow for both sensors to be combined to an integrated system.
Notes: "December 1997."

Thesis advisor(s): Xiaoping Yun.

Thesis (M.S. in Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 99).

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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