Performance Assessment of an Ultra Low-Cost Inertial Measurement Unit for Ground Vehicle Navigation.

Area of Science:

• Automotive Engineering
• Robotics
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Navigation systems are crucial for advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicles.
• The MPU-6000 is a widely used, low-cost Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) but lacks automotive performance analysis.
• Existing literature lacks detailed performance evaluations of the MPU-6000 for ground navigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a detailed performance analysis of the MPU-6000 IMU for low-cost ground vehicle navigation systems.
• To investigate the suitability of the MPU-6000 for automotive applications.
• To compare the MPU-6000's performance against a higher-grade MEMS IMU.

Main Methods:

• Characterized MPU-6000 performance through static and kinematic analyses.
• Conducted kinematic tests using a real urban trajectory with the MPU-6000, a superior MEMS IMU, and two Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers.
• Simulated GNSS signal loss during a portion of the kinematic trajectory to evaluate performance under challenging conditions.

Main Results:

• The MPU-6000 demonstrated performance suitable for specific automotive navigation tasks.
• Position inaccuracies were approximately 2 meters, and heading angle errors were around 3 degrees.
• The sensor's viability was assessed across scenarios with good satellite visibility and GNSS signal outages.

Conclusions:

• The MPU-6000 is a viable inertial sensor for low-cost integrated navigation systems in ground vehicles.
• It is particularly suitable for applications tolerating specific error margins (2m position, 3° heading).
• This preliminary work highlights the MPU-6000's potential for cost-effective automotive navigation solutions.