Kalman Filter Based Sensor Fusion for Omnidirectional Mechatronic System

The paper describes the sensor fusion for the newly developed omnidirectional mechatronic system. To that end, the kinematic model of the platform and the chosen configuration of omnidirectional Mecanum wheels is described, as well as the principle of operation of all system sensors. The expressions are given for a discrete linear Kalman filter that fuses measurements of a magnetometer and gyroscope, and for a discrete extended Kalman filter that estimates position and orientation of the platform using additional accelerometer measurements. To be able to express the measurement equation four additional states are added to the system model. The developed sensor fusion algorithm was implemented in MATLAB/Simulink programming environment, and very accurate simulation results are reported for estimation of position and orientation of the system. Finally, the real time experimental results are reported for a prototype of the omnidirectional mobile mechatronic system.