Accelerometer-Based Wheel Odometer for Kinematics Determination

Various high budget industries that utilize wheel-based vehicles rely on wheel odometry as an integral aspect of their navigation process. This research introduces a low-cost alternative for typical wheel encoders that are typically used to determine the on-track speed of vehicles. The proposed system is referred to as an Accelerometer-based Wheel Odometer for Kinematics determination (AWOK). The AWOK system comprises just a single axis accelerometer mounted radially at the center of any given wheel. The AWOK system can provide direct distances instead of just velocities, which are provided by typical wheel speedometers. Hence, the AWOK system is advantageous in comparison to typical wheel odometers. Besides, the AWOK system comprises a simple assembly with a highly efficient data processing algorithm. Additionally, the AWOK system provides a high capacity to handle high dynamics in comparison to similar approaches found in previous related work. Furthermore, the AWOK system is not affected by the inherited stochastic errors in micro-machined electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors, whether short-term or long-term errors. Above all, the AWOK system reported a relative accuracy of 0.15% in determining the distance covered by a car.