Assessment of Noise of MEMS IMU Sensors of Different Grades for GNSS/IMU Navigation

Abstract

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are key components of various applications including navigation, robotics, aerospace, and automotive systems. IMU sensor characteristics have a significant impact on the accuracy and reliability of these applications. In particular, noise characteristics and bias stability are critical for proper filter settings to perform a combined GNSS/IMU solution. This paper presents an analysis based on the Allan deviation of different IMU sensors that correspond to different grades of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-type IMUs in order to evaluate their accuracy and stability over time. The study covers three IMU sensors of different grades (ascending order): Rokubun Argonaut navigator sensor (InvenSense TDK MPU9250), Samsung Galaxy Note10 phone sensor (STMicroelectronics LSM6DSR), and NovAtel PwrPak7 sensor (Epson EG320N). The noise components of the sensors are computed using overlapped Allan deviation analysis on data collected over the course of a week in a static position. The focus of the analysis is to characterize the random walk noise and bias stability, which are the most critical for combined GNSS/IMU navigation and may differ or may not be listed in manufacturers’ specifications. Noise characteristics are calculated for the studied sensors and examples of their use in loosely coupled GNSS/IMU processing are assessed. This work proposes a structured and reproducible approach for working with sensors for their use in navigation tasks in combination with GNSS, and can be used for sensors of different levels to supplement missing or incorrect sensor manufacturers’ data.