Using Inertial MEMS Sensors to Estimate Roll Angle of a Rotating Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This article proposes the use of MEMS sensors to determine the roll angle of unmanned aerial devices. In this approach, two gyroscopes are employed to measure roll angular velocity. The received angular velocity allows for the calculation of the roll angle through integration procedures. To reduce the need for a wide measurement range, these gyroscopes are symmetrically positioned and offset at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of unmanned aerial devices. To correct cumulative errors during the measurement period, the article suggests using two accelerometers with axes orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the unmanned aerial devices and offset by π/2 from each other. The output signals from these accelerometers are used to calibrate the received roll angle during the measurement process. Simulation results show that the correction allows to eliminate of the accumulation errors of roll angle calculation over time.