Analysis of MEMS IMU Errors Impact on UAV Positioning Accuracy

Abstract

This paper proposes a comprehensive study conducted over one of the primary sources of positioning errors in unmanned aerial systems (UAVs) navigation systems: the inherent limitations of embedded miniaturized inertial measurement units (IMUs). In recent years, MEMS technologies have come to dominate the electronics market due to their promising advantages of reduced cost and size, low power consumption and series production. These aspects make them particularly attractive for the applications in which compactness and autonomy are critical, such as in the UAV industry. However, the drawbacks of MEMS devices are their susceptibility to environmental factors and their intrinsic imperfection which result in errors and noises contaminating the output acceleration and angular velocity signals. Improper sensing of vehicle dynamics may consequently lead to erroneous computation within the strap-down navigation algorithm. For this reason, errors and noises originating from the inertial subsystem may substantially degrade the precision of the final global coordinates and compromise the overall mission success. The current research aims to provide a clear examination of the aspects influenced by IMU errors throughout the navigation algorithm, as well as to identify potential approaches for further research in the field of positioning accuracy enhancement