Development of Sensorial Subsystem Hardware for Mechatronic Systems

Abstract

The paper deals with hardware design of sensorial subsystem for strapdown inertial navigation for mechatronic system that is characterized by a long-term stability and it generates data in real time about accelerations, angular rates and position during the mechatronic system operation. This sensorial system can be used in many applications such as automotive systems or aircraft navigation. In our paper we used small model helicopter for testing sensorial subsystem in demanding conditions. The sensorial system is based on powerful 32-bit processors with the cores ARM7 and Cortex-M3. The main unit for data processing presents an embedded computer built on a mini-ITX motherboard with the processor Intel i3. The helicopter presents a system with six degrees of freedom. In the fact, during the flight, there is not any fixed point that would enable to caliber the sensors placed on the helicopter board, so for processing sensor data complex stochastic calculations are necessary. They are based on a discrete Kalman filter that presents a main computing tool of the control system.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.20.2.6377