Improving accuracy with multiple sensors: Study of redundant MEMS-IMU/GPS configurations

Although experimental results have demonstrated that redundant MEMS-IMUs integrated with GPS are an efficient way to improve navigation performances, the precise relationship between the number of sensors employed and the accuracy enhancement remains unclear. This article aims at demonstrating, with the help of simulations, that multiple MEMS-IMU systems can be designed according to specifications. This enables to better define the relationship between the number of sensors employed and the accuracy improvement as well as to ascertain the precise number of sensors needed to fulfill the system's requirements. This proves to be highly helpful in designing navigation systems for applications that require a specific precision. This article also aims at demonstrating the impact of sensors' orientation on the system performances. To achieve this, a new method based on partial redundancies is introduced to formalize the determination of optimal geometry of multi-IMU systems. It shows that, when dealing with IMU triads, the optimality of such systems is independent of the geometry between them. This result, moreover, presents important practical implications since it demonstrates that complicated geometries, traditionally employed in such systems, can be avoided. Additionally, it also proves that navigation performances obtained by simulations with a certain number of sensors are valid independently from orientation amongst these sensors.