Simplified Attitude Determination Algorithm Using Accelerometer and Magnetometer with Extremely Low Execution Time

Abstract

Accelerometer-magnetometer attitude determination is a common and vital medium processing technique in industrial robotics and consumer electronics. In this paper, we report a novel analytic attitude solution to the accelerometer-magnetometer combination in the sense of Wahba’s problem. The Davenport matrix is analytically given and its eigenvalues are computed. Through derivations, the eigenvalues are simplified to very short expressions. Then, the corresponding eigenvectors are given accordingly via matrix row operations. The system is highly optimized based on the factorization and simplification of the obtained row-echelon form, which makes it computationally fast in practice. In this way, it is named as the fast accelerometer-magnetometer combination (FAMC). Experiments on the correctness and advantages of the proposed solution are conducted. The results show that compared with conventional solutions, the proposed analytic solution is not only correct and accurate, but to our knowledge, the most time efficient as well.