Implementation of a C Library of Kalman Filters for Application on Embedded Systems

Abstract

Having knowledge about the states of a system is an important component in most control systems. However, an exact measurement of the states cannot always be provided because it is either not technically possible or only possible with a significant effort. Therefore, state estimation plays an important role in control applications. The well-known and widely used Kalman filter is often employed for this purpose. This paper describes the implementation of nonlinear Kalman filter algorithms, the extended and the unscented Kalman filter with square-rooting, in the programming language C, that are suitable for the use on embedded systems. The implementations deal with single or double precision data types depending on the application. The newly implemented filters are demonstrated in the context of semi-active vehicle damper control and the estimation of the tire–road friction coefficient as application examples, providing real-time capability. Their per-formances were evaluated in tests on an electronic control unit and a rapid-prototyping platform.