Development of a low-cost attitude sensor for agricultural vehicles

The objective of this research was to develop a low-cost attitude sensor for agricultural vehicles. The attitude sensor was composed of three vibratory gyroscopes and two inclinometers. A sensor fusion algorithm was developed to estimate tilt angles (roll and pitch) by least-squares method. In the algorithm, the drift error of the gyroscopes was estimated using the inclinometers. In addition to tilt angles, the attitude sensor also estimated the absolute heading angle and position with inclination error correction by integrating a GPS. Tests were conducted on a flat field, a sloping ground and a bumpy road. Results showed that the attitude sensor was able to estimate the roll angle with the maximum root mean square error of 0.43°, the pitch angle with 0.61° and the heading angle with 0.64°. Moreover, the attitude sensor dramatically improved the positioning accuracy from 25.9 cm to 3.0 cm in the sloping ground test and from 8.4 cm to 3.7 cm in the bumpy road test. The proposed technology used in the attitude sensor will help to develop advanced agricultural applications.

Research highlights
► A low-cost attitude sensor for agricultural vehicles was developed.
► The sensor is composed of three gyroscopes and two inclinometers.
► A least-square method was applied to estimate the drift error of gyroscopes.
► Position was estimated with an inclination correction by integrating a GPS.
► The root mean square errors were 0.43 (roll), 0.61 (pitch) and 0.64 (heading).
► The attitude sensor dramatically improved the positioning accuracy.