Add calculation of a vertical position derivative to the output predictor. This will have degraded tracking relative to the EKF states, but the velocity will be closer to the first derivative of the position and reduce the effect inertial prediction errors on control loops that are operating in a pure velocity feedback mode.
Move calculation of IMU offset angular rate correction out of velocity accessor and into output predictor.
Provide separate accessor for vertical position derivative.
Use horizontal acceleration to check if yaw is observable independent of the magnetometer.
Use rotation about the vertical to check if mag raises are observable.
If neither yaw of mag biases are observable, save the magnetic field variances and switch to magnetic yaw fusion.
Use the last learned declination when using magnetic yaw fusion so that the yaw reference remains consistent.
When yaw or biases become observable, reinstate the saved variances and switch back to 3D mag fusion.
Use vertical velocity and position innovation failure to detect bad accelerometer data caused by clipping or aliasing which can cause large vertical acceleration errors and loss of height estimation. When bad accel data is detected:
1) Inhibit accelerometer bias learning
2) Force fusion of vertical velocity and height data
3) Increase accelerometer process noise
The previous practice of relying on the off-diagonals being zero caused problems with conditioning of the magnetometer fusion on one flight. By storing the variances when the learning inhibit becomes active and ensuring that the rows and columns in the covariance matrix for the inhibited states are always zero, the observed numerical conditioning error has been eliminated for replay of the problem flight log .
Make the target EKF rate an integer multiple of the IMU rate. This slightly increases the average prediction time step for the EKF from just over 10msec to 12msec, but the variation reduces significantly which makes filter tuning more deterministic.
Improve the algorithm used to adjust the collection time criteria to reduce jitter in the correction.
This is a functionally equivalent. It moves all of the code for the terrain estimator into a single function call from the main filter update, making it clear that it is independent of the main filter.
All the decision for a sensor are made within a specific function for that sensor and when there is data to process at the fusion time horizon.
Information and warning messages are improved.
Wait until enough height has been gained to be clear of ground based magnetic anomalies. Failure to do so can result in incorrect earth field initialisation.
Daniel Agar
Paul Riseborough
Paul Riseborough
ChristophTobler
Roman
devbharat
Nic
CarlOlsson