Polynomial degree determination for temperature dependent error compensation of inertial sensors

MEMS based Inertial Measurement Units, which include MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes, have a wide range of applications due to their low cost, small size and low power consumption. IMU error should be reduced to the lowest level so as to minimize errors of navigation systems which use MEMS IMU. MEMS sensors have bias, scale factor as well as temperature change of these errors. In the error compensation algorithm, polynomials are used to compensate temperature dependent change of errors. The degree of polynomials, which are determined according to sensor characteristics, affect IMU performance. Therefore, optimum degree must be determined by various methods and studies. In this paper, temperature dependent errors of MEMS inertial sensors will be defined and how to determine degree of polynomial will be explained so as to compensate errors by the optimum way. Several simulation studies are supported with real sensor data.