On Attitude Estimation with Smartphones

A previous work at IPIN'15 can be found here.

PRESENTATION

This work is an extension of paper On Attitude Estimation with Smartphones [PDF] [Slides + Video] [Slides]. Especially, we present more details on experimental protocol, more algorithms and more results compared to the paper. A journal version (Attitude Estimation for Indoor Navigation and Augmented Reality with Smartphones) is also available [PDF]

We investigate the precision of attitude estimation algorithms in the particular context of pedestrian navigation with commodity smartphones and their inertial/magnetic sensors. We report on an extensive comparison and experimental analysis of existing algorithms. We focus on typical motions of smartphones when carried by pedestrians. We use a precise ground truth obtained from a motion capture system. We test state-of-the-art attitude estimation techniques with several smartphones, in the presence of magnetic perturbations typically found in buildings. We discuss the obtained results, analyze advantages and limits of current technologies for attitude estimation in this context. Furthermore, we propose a new technique for limiting the impact of magnetic perturbations with any attitude estimation algorithm used in this context. We show how our technique compares and improves over previous works.

Smartphone Handler

EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL

Ground Truth

Reference measurements have been made by a Qualisys system. This technology provides quaternions with a precision of 0.5° of rotation. Our room is equipped with 20 Oqus cameras connected to a server and a Qualisys Tracker software with a sampling rate at 150Hz. For the purpose of aligning timestamps of our ground truth data with the one of smartphone’s sensors, we used a slerp interpolation [1]. The motion tracker reference frame has been aligned with EF using room orientation provided by architects. The room is a 10m×10m square motion lab.

Kinovis

Figure 1. Kinovis room at Inria, Grenoble, France

A smartphone handler with infrared markers has been created with a 3D printer for this study and its markers have been aligned with sensor frame.

Typical Smartphone Motions

We identify 8 typical motions for a smartphone, inspired from [2].

Augmented Reality

Querying the context in augmented reality

Texting

Walking while user is texting a message

Phoning

Walking while the user is phoning

Swinging

Walking with a swinging hand

Front Pocket

Walking with the device in the front pocket

Back Pocket

Walking with the device in the back pocket

Running Hand

Running with the device in the hand

Running Pocket

Running with the device in the pocket

Figure 2. The eight typical motions for a smartphone.

Each motion comes with particular external accelerations. The Table 1 shows some statistics on external acceleration magnitude grouped by motion, for the 126 tests. For the last 3 columns, No det. means our reference system detected an high external acceleration but the detector of Eq.(15) not. The inverse is not possible.

Motions MAE
(m.s-2)
MAE Estimated
(m.s-2)
Ratio STD
(m.s-2)
> 0.5 m.s-2 > 1.5 m.s-2 > 5 m.s-2 No det. > 0.5 m.s-2 No det. > 1.5 m.s-2 No det. > 5 m.s-2
AR0.560.242.390.3446.4%2.4%0.0%35.2%1.9%0.0%
Texting1.080.611.810.5983.5%20.7%0.1%39.0%12.7%0.1%
Phoning1.080.571.960.6083.1%21.0%0.1%43.2%13.5%0.1%
Front Pocket2.481.401.811.5897.1%68.2%7.5%30.6%35.8%4.0%
Back Pocket2.531.232.101.5697.5%72.0%7.7%33.3%46.4%4.3%
Swinging5.282.302.421.8299.7%96.8%52.5%15.3%39.1%43.2%
Running Pocket9.565.931.614.5399.6%98.2%84.4%4.7%12.4%31.5%
Running Hand16.348.442.025.2599.9%99.7%98.6%5.7%16.4%42.9%

Table 1. Statistics on Magnitude of External Accelerations.

During our tests, we observed that external accelerations are almost never zeros because the device is always moving and it is almost impossible to produce a constant speed for the device when it is held or carried in a pocket. However, we noticed a high variety of external accelerations: some motions involve external accelerations that are 20 times lower than gravity while others (like running hand) are closer to twice the value of gravity. We also noticed that the maximum swing of accelerometer (±2g) is often reached during our running experiments.

Introducing Magnetic Perturbations

During tests in several buildings, we noticed that indoorenvironments are always more or less disturbed. This is mainly due to building structure. We also observed in some cases, if user is close to heaters, electrical cabinets or simply close to a wall, magnitude of magnetic field can grow up to 150 µT during few seconds, that is 3 times more than Earth’s magnetic field (see e.g. Figure 3).

Inria Magnetic Field

Figure 3. Magnitude of magnetic field measurements and Earth’s magnetic field in the indoor environment of Inria building in Grenoble.

The motion capture system that we use is located in a room with low and constant magnetic perturbations. In order to reproduce typical magnetic perturbations of indoor environments inside the motion lab, we used several magnetic boards. This allowed us to introduce magnetic perturbations similar to the ones described above. Specifically, during the 2 minutes tests, we brought the device to a few centimeters away from magnetic boards; and we repeated this action 3 or 4 times.

Magnetic Boards

Figure 4. Magnetic boards for building structure and heaters simulation

Magnetic Boards Magnetic Field

Figure 5. Magnitude of magnetic field measurements and Earth’s magnetic field during our simulation with magnetic boards.

The Table 2 shows some statistics on external magnetic field magnitude. For the last 3 columns, No det. means our reference system detected an high external acceleration but the detector of Eq.(16) not. The inverse is not possible.
Perturbations MAE
(μT)
MAE Estimated
(μT)
Ratio STD
(μT)
> 10 μT > 15 μT > 20 μT No det. > 10 μT No det. > 15 μT No det. > 20 μT
With29.5718.611.6543.0946.7%31.2%26.5%20.4%12.5%9.9%
Without7.125.181.401.9913.0%0.2%0.0%9.0%0.1%0.0%

Table 2. Statistics on Magnitude of External Magnetic Fields.

Different Devices

Measurements have been recorded with 3 different smartphones from 2 manufacturers. The 3 smartphones used are a LG Nexus 5, an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S. We implemented a log application for Android and iOS. Table 3 summarizes sensors specifications for the 3 devices.

Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
iPhone 4S ST Micro STM33DH
100Hz
ST Micro AGDI
100Hz
AKM 8975
40Hz
iPhone 5 ST Micro LIS331DLH
100Hz
ST Micro L3G4200D
100Hz
AKM 8963
25Hz
Nexus 5 InvenSense MPU6515
200Hz
InvenSense MPU6515
200Hz
AKM 8963
60Hz

Table 3. Sensors specifications with the maximum sampling rate.

For the purpose of aligning timestamps of magnetic field and gyroscope data with data obtained from accelerometer, we used a linear extrapolation. In order to keep the focus on a realtime process, interpolation is not allowable here. We choose to align data at 100Hz. Moreover, for each experience, we chose to process 31 algorithms at 4 sampling rates and with 7 different calibrations, that is a total of more than 110 000 tests and 804 millions quaternions compared.

Common Basis of Comparison and Reproduction

To ensure a reasonably fast convergence of algorithms, we initialize the first quaternion using the first measurement of accelerometer and the first measurement of magnetometer (see Algorithm 1). In addition, we discard the first five seconds from our results.

      
        H = cross(mag, acc);
        H = H/norm(H);

        acc = acc/norm(acc);
        M = cross(acc, H);

        % ENU
        R = [   H(1) M(1) acc(1)
                H(2) M(2) acc(2)
                H(3) M(3) acc(3)];

        % NED
        % R = [   M(1) H(1) -acc(1)
        %         M(2) H(2) -acc(2)
        %         M(3) H(3) -acc(3)];

        q = dcm2quat(R);
      
    

Algorithm 1. Initialization using first measurement of magnetometer and accelerometer.

Most smartphone APIs (including Nexus 5 and iPhones) provide both calibrated and uncalibrated data from magnetometer and gyroscope (not from iOS API), and only uncalibrated data from accelerometer. Calibration phases can be triggered by the Android operating system at anytime. However, we notice that the gyroscope bias is removed during static phases and the magnetometer is calibrated during the drawing of an infinity symbol. For iOS devices, magnetometer calibration must be explicitly triggered by the user. The exact calibration algorithms embedded in both iOS and Android are not disclosed so we consider them as "black-boxes".

To investigate the impact of calibration, we also developed a custom calibration procedure: every morning, we applied our own implementation of the calibration based on Bartz et al. [3] to remove soft and hard iron distortions from magnetometer and based on Frosio et al. [4] for the accelerometer. In addition, for all calibrations we applied a scale to adjust magnitude to 9.8 m.s-2 for accelerometer and Earth's magnetic field magnitude for magnetometer. For the gyroscope, we simply remove the bias by subtracting measured values in each axis during static phases.

The precision error is reported using the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) on the Quaternion Angle Difference (QAD) [5]. It allows to avoid the use of Euler angles with the gimbal-lock problem. The formula of QAD is defined by:

θ = cos-1 ( 2 ⟨ q1, q2 ⟩2 - 1).

Since the accuracy of the system that provides the ground truth is ± 0.5°, we consider that two algorithms exhibiting differences in precision lower than 0.5° rank similarly.

ALGORITHMS COMPARED

We have selected 8 filters from the literature. We took care to consider the different approaches used for estimating attitude using the three inertial sensors. Our selection of algorithms can roughly be divided into two categories: those based on observers, and those based on Kalman filters (with their EKF, LKF, and AKF variants). We summarize the main principles and objectives of each algorithm that we have implemented below (see [6] for a more formal description of each algorithm using a common notation). For reproducibility purposes, we also indicate parameters that we used with each tested algorithm -- which we set in accordance with authors guidelines found in their papers. We also consider the "black-box algorithms" embedded in Android and iOS.

For Kalman Filters, experimentally we obtained the best results by using the following "noise values": σacc = 0.5, σmag = 0.8, σgyr = 0.3. Except for the Linear KF from Choukroun where we adapt these values for the linearized model: σacc = 0.3, σmag = 0.3, σgyr = 0.5. ChoukrounSn, EkfSn, EkfRevSn, MichelEkfSn are the same than algorithms presented above but using sensors noises.

BENCHMARKS DATA

Datasets are MAT files (for references) and DSV files (for measurements). Algorithms and code are in Matlab format.

GitHub Benchmarks Attitude on Smartphones
Datasets, algorithms and code.

GitHub Google Play Senslogs (Android)
This android application records and store values from internal sensors.

GitHub Senslogs (iOS)
This iOS application records and store values from internal sensors.

RESULTS

Importance of Calibration

Mag: No
Gyr: No
Acc: No
Mag: Yes
Gyr: No
Acc: No
Mag: Yes
Gyr: No
Acc: Yes
Mag: Yes
Gyr: Yes
Acc: No
Mag: Yes
Gyr: Yes
Acc: Yes
Mag: Yes
Gyr: OS*
Acc: Yes
Mag: OS
Gyr: OS*
Acc: No
Choukroun
95.1°
16.5°
16.5°
9.9°
10.0°
9.9°
17.3°
ChoukrounSn
82.5°
52.6°
52.5°
19.3°
19.0°
17.9°
41.2°
Ekf
79.8°
19.4°
19.4°
7.9°
8.0°
7.9°
18.2°
EkfExp
79.5°
19.5°
19.5°
8.0°
8.0°
7.9°
18.2°
EkfLJ
82.3°
19.4°
19.4°
8.0°
8.0°
8.0°
18.0°
EkfRev
81.5°
17.2°
17.3°
8.3°
8.4°
8.4°
17.7°
EkfRevSn
91.2°
74.9°
74.6°
57.8°
57.8°
56.3°
67.0°
EkfSn
88.5°
70.0°
70.9°
36.4°
35.8°
36.0°
58.3°
Fourati
83.7°
15.6°
15.5°
10.3°
10.4°
10.4°
16.3°
FouratiExtacc
108.9°
27.1°
27.2°
13.5°
13.5°
13.4°
24.5°
FouratiMartin
83.8°
14.9°
14.9°
8.3°
8.3°
8.3°
16.1°
FouratiMartinExtmagWtRep
82.1°
15.4°
15.4°
6.1°
6.2°
6.1°
15.5°
Madgwick
77.5°
18.2°
18.2°
8.1°
8.1°
8.1°
17.7°
MadgwickB
91.6°
13.4°
13.3°
13.1°
13.1°
13.1°
18.7°
Mahony
99.6°
20.2°
20.2°
14.2°
14.2°
14.2°
19.1°
MahonyB
100.1°
24.1°
24.1°
24.0°
24.1°
24.0°
23.4°
MahonyMartin
77.3°
22.0°
22.0°
7.3°
7.3°
7.2°
18.5°
MahonyMartinExtmagWtRep
82.0°
24.1°
24.1°
7.1°
7.1°
6.9°
19.4°
Martin
79.2°
19.7°
19.7°
17.9°
18.1°
18.1°
18.6°
MichelEkf
79.8°
19.4°
19.4°
7.9°
8.0°
7.9°
18.2°
MichelEkfExtmag
82.0°
19.3°
19.3°
7.6°
7.7°
7.6°
18.0°
MichelEkfExtmagWt
82.0°
19.4°
19.4°
7.1°
7.2°
7.1°
18.0°
MichelEkfExtmagWtRep
82.0°
20.1°
20.1°
6.9°
7.0°
6.9°
18.2°
MichelEkfSn
88.5°
70.0°
70.9°
36.4°
35.8°
36.0°
58.3°
MichelObs
83.7°
15.6°
15.5°
10.3°
10.4°
10.4°
16.3°
MichelObsExtmag
82.1°
13.4°
13.3°
7.7°
7.7°
7.7°
15.5°
MichelObsExtmagWt
82.1°
13.6°
13.6°
7.1°
7.1°
7.1°
15.2°
MichelObsExtmagWtRep
82.1°
13.6°
13.5°
5.9°
5.9°
5.9°
15.1°
Renaudin
82.2°
19.5°
19.5°
8.0°
8.1°
8.0°
18.1°
RenaudinB
95.0°
9.5°
9.5°
9.6°
9.6°
9.5°
17.7°
RenaudinBG
94.3°
9.6°
9.6°
9.8°
9.7°
9.7°
17.6°
RenaudinBGExtaccExtmag
96.5°
10.3°
10.3°
10.5°
10.4°
10.3°
18.5°
RenaudinExtacc
86.2°
20.2°
20.2°
8.9°
8.9°
8.9°
19.5°
RenaudinExtaccExtmag
84.6°
20.2°
20.2°
8.7°
8.8°
8.7°
19.4°
RenaudinExtmag
81.3°
19.5°
19.5°
7.8°
7.9°
7.8°
18.0°
RenaudinSn
81.7°
53.1°
52.9°
20.3°
20.1°
19.1°
42.4°
Sabatini
79.8°
19.4°
19.4°
7.9°
8.0°
7.9°
18.2°
SabatiniExtacc
100.6°
25.2°
25.3°
10.8°
10.8°
10.7°
22.8°
SabatiniExtaccExtmag
100.6°
25.2°
25.3°
10.8°
10.8°
10.7°
22.8°
SabatiniExtmag
81.0°
19.3°
19.3°
7.7°
7.7°
7.7°
17.8°

Table 4. Precision of attitude estimation according to calibration with all motions.

The Difficulty with Noise for Kalman Filters

AR Texting Phoning Front
Pocket
Back
Pocket
Swinging Running
Pocket
Running
Hand
Choukroun
5.1°
4.3°
4.4°
4.8°
4.6°
6.3°
7.9°
21.1°
ChoukrounSn
15.6°
20.6°
15.9°
17.8°
16.9°
11.5°
17.6°
35.2°
Ekf
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
EkfRev
4.5°
3.8°
3.8°
4.7°
4.6°
6.3°
8.5°
14.1°
EkfRevSn
73.3°
95.8°
55.2°
32.9°
36.0°
75.7°
24.8°
69.1°
EkfSn
44.0°
57.8°
36.1°
20.6°
30.8°
29.1°
23.3°
54.1°
MichelEkf
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
MichelEkfSn
44.0°
57.8°
36.1°
20.6°
30.8°
29.1°
23.3°
54.1°
Renaudin
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.7°
4.6°
6.1°
8.5°
17.9°
RenaudinSn
20.8°
18.5°
17.8°
17.3°
18.4°
11.4°
17.4°
36.5°

Table 5. Precision of attitude estimation according to sensor noises without magnetic perturbations.

Bias Consideration

AR Texting Phoning Front
Pocket
Back
Pocket
Swinging Running
Pocket
Running
Hand
Madgwick
4.8°
4.1°
4.6°
4.9°
5.0°
5.8°
7.1°
16.5°
MadgwickB
5.2°
4.8°
5.4°
5.8°
6.2°
11.5°
10.5°
19.8°
Mahony
5.0°
4.6°
4.2°
5.1°
5.2°
7.5°
7.9°
11.2°
MahonyB
5.6°
4.9°
4.7°
6.1°
5.7°
9.9°
13.1°
26.4°
Renaudin
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.7°
4.6°
6.1°
8.5°
17.9°
RenaudinB
4.5°
3.6°
3.7°
4.5°
4.6°
7.0°
12.7°
19.3°
RenaudinBG
4.5°
3.7°
3.8°
4.5°
4.6°
6.9°
12.8°
19.3°

Table 6. Precision of attitude according to bias estimation without magnetic perturbations.

Behaviors during Typical Smartphone Motions

AR Texting Phoning Front
Pocket
Back
Pocket
Swinging Running
Pocket
Running
Hand
Choukroun
5.1°
4.3°
4.4°
4.8°
4.6°
6.3°
7.9°
21.1°
ChoukrounSn
15.6°
20.6°
15.9°
17.8°
16.9°
11.5°
17.6°
35.2°
Ekf
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
EkfExp
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
6.0°
8.3°
17.0°
EkfLJ
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.7°
4.6°
6.1°
8.5°
17.6°
EkfRev
4.5°
3.8°
3.8°
4.7°
4.6°
6.3°
8.5°
14.1°
EkfRevSn
73.3°
95.8°
55.2°
32.9°
36.0°
75.7°
24.8°
69.1°
EkfSn
44.0°
57.8°
36.1°
20.6°
30.8°
29.1°
23.3°
54.1°
Fourati
4.8°
4.0°
4.4°
4.6°
4.8°
5.3°
6.3°
6.6°
FouratiExtacc
4.9°
5.4°
4.7°
6.0°
5.7°
8.4°
12.2°
29.1°
FouratiMartin
4.6°
3.4°
4.3°
4.5°
4.6°
5.5°
6.4°
11.2°
FouratiMartinExtmagWtRep
4.6°
3.4°
4.3°
4.5°
4.6°
5.5°
6.4°
11.2°
Madgwick
4.8°
4.1°
4.6°
4.9°
5.0°
5.8°
7.1°
16.5°
MadgwickB
5.2°
4.8°
5.4°
5.8°
6.2°
11.5°
10.5°
19.8°
Mahony
5.0°
4.6°
4.2°
5.1°
5.2°
7.5°
7.9°
11.2°
MahonyB
5.6°
4.9°
4.7°
6.1°
5.7°
9.9°
13.1°
26.4°
MahonyMartin
4.7°
3.9°
4.0°
4.7°
4.5°
5.1°
7.4°
18.5°
MahonyMartinExtmagWtRep
4.7°
4.0°
4.0°
4.7°
4.5°
5.1°
7.4°
18.5°
Martin
4.7°
4.5°
5.3°
6.4°
6.8°
12.6°
12.0°
19.3°
MichelEkf
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
MichelEkfExtmag
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
MichelEkfExtmagWt
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
MichelEkfExtmagWtRep
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
6.0°
8.2°
16.8°
MichelEkfSn
44.0°
57.8°
36.1°
20.6°
30.8°
29.1°
23.3°
54.1°
MichelObs
4.8°
4.0°
4.4°
4.6°
4.8°
5.3°
6.3°
6.6°
MichelObsExtmag
4.8°
4.0°
4.4°
4.6°
4.8°
5.3°
6.3°
6.6°
MichelObsExtmagWt
4.8°
4.0°
4.4°
4.6°
4.8°
5.3°
6.3°
6.6°
MichelObsExtmagWtRep
4.8°
3.9°
4.4°
4.6°
4.8°
5.3°
6.3°
6.6°
OS
7.1°
5.9°
5.8°
12.7°
13.2°
20.3°
24.4°
62.0°
Renaudin
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.7°
4.6°
6.1°
8.5°
17.9°
RenaudinB
4.5°
3.6°
3.7°
4.5°
4.6°
7.0°
12.7°
19.3°
RenaudinBG
4.5°
3.7°
3.8°
4.5°
4.6°
6.9°
12.8°
19.3°
RenaudinBGExtaccExtmag
4.5°
3.7°
3.8°
4.3°
4.7°
6.9°
12.3°
31.8°
RenaudinExtacc
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.8°
4.8°
6.0°
8.0°
30.3°
RenaudinExtaccExtmag
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.8°
4.8°
6.0°
8.0°
30.3°
RenaudinExtmag
4.5°
3.8°
3.7°
4.7°
4.6°
6.1°
8.5°
17.9°
RenaudinSn
20.8°
18.5°
17.8°
17.3°
18.4°
11.4°
17.4°
36.5°
Sabatini
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°
SabatiniExtacc
4.5°
4.5°
4.0°
5.5°
5.0°
9.7°
15.0°
33.5°
SabatiniExtaccExtmag
4.5°
4.5°
4.0°
5.5°
5.0°
9.7°
15.0°
33.5°
SabatiniExtmag
4.5°
4.0°
3.7°
4.6°
4.6°
5.9°
8.2°
16.8°

Table 7. Precision of Attitude estimation according to typical motions without magnetic perturbations.

Impact of Magnetic Perturbations

AR Texting Phoning Front
Pocket
Back
Pocket
Swinging
Choukroun
24.8°
13.3°
12.4°
11.0°
9.6°
10.1°
ChoukrounSn
17.7°
19.5°
16.5°
20.4°
15.7°
25.4°
Ekf
16.6°
10.1°
8.9°
8.0°
7.0°
8.6°
EkfExp
16.6°
10.1°
9.0°
7.9°
7.0°
8.7°
EkfLJ
17.1°
9.6°
8.9°
7.6°
7.0°
8.7°
EkfRev
18.6°
13.9°
9.4°
8.9°
7.8°
8.5°
EkfRevSn
63.7°
69.7°
59.7°
45.9°
47.0°
60.1°
EkfSn
33.3°
62.8°
23.8°
34.3°
27.8°
23.9°
Fourati
32.1°
19.1°
14.6°
16.4°
14.0°
8.8°
FouratiExtacc
30.5°
19.8°
16.3°
19.2°
13.5°
13.4°
FouratiMartin
21.7°
13.1°
12.1°
10.1°
8.1°
7.4°
FouratiMartinExtmagWtRep
10.2°
7.7°
5.8°
5.4°
5.2°
7.5°
Madgwick
18.2°
10.0°
8.1°
7.8°
7.5°
9.4°
MadgwickB
39.3°
20.7°
15.0°
15.7°
10.6°
13.2°
Mahony
31.8°
26.6°
19.9°
30.0°
26.1°
13.9°
MahonyB
40.3°
52.8°
43.0°
49.3°
51.6°
23.3°
MahonyMartin
14.4°
7.7°
7.6°
5.9°
5.8°
7.7°
MahonyMartinExtmagWtRep
10.1°
8.7°
6.3°
6.4°
5.5°
9.5°
Martin
34.4°
35.2°
23.7°
30.6°
29.0°
21.5°
MichelEkf
16.6°
10.1°
8.9°
8.0°
7.0°
8.6°
MichelEkfExtmag
14.2°
9.2°
5.5°
9.0°
8.9°
8.6°
MichelEkfExtmagWt
12.3°
8.7°
5.3°
7.2°
6.3°
8.5°
MichelEkfExtmagWtRep
10.8°
7.5°
5.7°
5.5°
5.3°
10.3°
MichelEkfSn
33.3°
62.8°
23.8°
34.3°
27.8°
23.9°
MichelObs
32.1°
19.1°
14.6°
16.4°
14.0°
8.8°
MichelObsExtmag
18.0°
10.3°
7.4°
11.4°
11.9°
8.8°
MichelObsExtmagWt
15.5°
10.2°
7.1°
9.7°
9.3°
7.4°
MichelObsExtmagWtRep
10.7°
7.7°
5.8°
6.0°
5.4°
7.1°
OS
29.0°
19.2°
19.8°
21.1°
24.4°
37.9°
Renaudin
17.1°
9.5°
8.9°
7.6°
7.0°
8.7°
RenaudinB
20.7°
17.5°
9.3°
11.3°
7.4°
8.3°
RenaudinBG
20.8°
17.7°
10.3°
11.4°
7.5°
8.2°
RenaudinBGExtaccExtmag
20.4°
17.3°
8.5°
10.5°
7.4°
9.5°
RenaudinExtacc
17.1°
9.6°
8.9°
7.8°
7.3°
8.8°
RenaudinExtaccExtmag
16.8°
8.9°
8.4°
7.4°
6.6°
8.4°
RenaudinExtmag
16.8°
8.9°
8.4°
7.3°
6.4°
8.4°
RenaudinSn
18.4°
19.0°
19.0°
23.4°
16.5°
27.5°
Sabatini
16.6°
10.1°
8.9°
8.0°
7.0°
8.6°
SabatiniExtacc
16.7°
10.9°
9.3°
9.9°
9.2°
12.9°
SabatiniExtaccExtmag
16.7°
10.9°
9.3°
9.9°
9.2°
12.9°
SabatiniExtmag
14.6°
9.0°
6.4°
8.9°
8.7°
8.4°

Table 8. Precision of attitude estimation according to typical motions with magnetic perturbations.

Comparison with Device-Embedded Algorithms

iPhone 4S iPhone 5 Nexus 5
Choukroun
8.6°
10.4°
10.9°
ChoukrounSn
14.3°
21.4°
21.3°
Ekf
6.7°
8.7°
8.5°
EkfExp
6.7°
8.8°
8.5°
EkfLJ
6.8°
8.8°
8.5°
EkfRev
7.0°
8.6°
9.5°
EkfRevSn
54.1°
57.4°
61.8°
EkfSn
27.8°
33.6°
46.1°
Fourati
8.8°
10.3°
12.1°
FouratiExtacc
10.6°
14.4°
15.6°
FouratiMartin
6.9°
8.5°
9.6°
FouratiMartinExtmagWtRep
5.3°
7.2°
6.0°
Madgwick
7.1°
8.7°
8.6°
MadgwickB
11.1°
13.3°
14.9°
Mahony
10.8°
15.2°
16.6°
MahonyB
18.4°
27.8°
26.0°
MahonyMartin
6.0°
8.2°
7.6°
MahonyMartinExtmagWtRep
5.5°
8.7°
7.1°
Martin
14.8°
19.0°
20.5°
MichelEkf
6.7°
8.7°
8.5°
MichelEkfExtmag
6.4°
8.9°
7.8°
MichelEkfExtmagWt
6.0°
8.5°
7.1°
MichelEkfExtmagWtRep
5.6°
8.3°
7.0°
MichelEkfSn
27.8°
33.6°
46.1°
MichelObs
8.8°
10.3°
12.1°
MichelObsExtmag
6.9°
8.3°
8.1°
MichelObsExtmagWt
6.3°
7.6°
7.4°
MichelObsExtmagWtRep
5.4°
6.5°
5.9°
OS
23.6°
28.6°
12.7°
Renaudin
6.8°
8.8°
8.6°
RenaudinB
9.1°
8.7°
10.9°
RenaudinBG
9.2°
8.7°
11.2°
RenaudinBGExtaccExtmag
8.7°
10.5°
12.0°
RenaudinExtacc
6.9°
10.7°
9.2°
RenaudinExtaccExtmag
6.8°
10.5°
9.0°
RenaudinExtmag
6.6°
8.6°
8.4°
RenaudinSn
16.1°
23.2°
21.1°
Sabatini
6.7°
8.7°
8.5°
SabatiniExtacc
8.7°
12.4°
11.2°
SabatiniExtaccExtmag
8.7°
12.4°
11.2°
SabatiniExtmag
6.4°
8.9°
7.9°

Table 9. Precision according to device with all motions and with/without magnetic perturbations.

Empirical Computational Complexity

Figure 6. Relative performance in terms of CPU cost (lower is better).

Relevant Sampling Rates

100 Hz 40 Hz 10 Hz 2 Hz
Choukroun
10.0°
10.1°
15.6°
34.7°
ChoukrounSn
19.0°
19.3°
34.2°
83.4°
Ekf
8.0°
8.1°
15.3°
49.5°
EkfExp
8.0°
8.1°
15.6°
51.7°
EkfLJ
8.0°
8.1°
14.8°
48.5°
EkfRev
8.4°
8.4°
14.3°
45.0°
EkfRevSn
57.8°
47.1°
49.4°
89.5°
EkfSn
35.8°
34.3°
44.1°
90.3°
Fourati
10.4°
10.4°
18.9°
52.5°
FouratiExtacc
13.5°
13.8°
23.1°
59.1°
FouratiMartin
8.3°
8.3°
16.6°
52.4°
FouratiMartinExtmagWtRep
6.2°
6.1°
14.8°
53.4°
Madgwick
8.1°
8.1°
17.3°
62.8°
MadgwickB
13.1°
13.6°
21.9°
63.0°
Mahony
14.2°
14.3°
19.7°
48.9°
MahonyB
24.1°
24.8°
28.6°
56.2°
MahonyMartin
7.3°
7.2°
16.5°
56.7°
MahonyMartinExtmagWtRep
7.1°
7.1°
16.6°
58.3°
Martin
18.1°
18.0°
21.7°
49.7°
MichelEkf
8.0°
8.1°
15.3°
49.5°
MichelEkfExtmag
7.7°
7.8°
14.9°
49.6°
MichelEkfExtmagWt
7.2°
7.3°
14.6°
49.8°
MichelEkfExtmagWtRep
7.0°
7.1°
14.8°
51.3°
MichelEkfSn
35.8°
34.3°
44.1°
90.3°
MichelObs
10.4°
10.4°
18.9°
52.5°
MichelObsExtmag
7.7°
7.7°
16.1°
50.7°
MichelObsExtmagWt
7.1°
7.1°
15.7°
51.0°
MichelObsExtmagWtRep
5.9°
6.0°
14.8°
52.5°
Renaudin
8.1°
8.2°
15.5°
51.2°
RenaudinB
9.6°
9.3°
15.4°
51.2°
RenaudinBG
9.7°
9.4°
15.4°
51.2°
RenaudinBGExtaccExtmag
10.4°
9.8°
17.9°
57.9°
RenaudinExtacc
8.9°
9.6°
18.6°
55.4°
RenaudinExtaccExtmag
8.8°
9.2°
17.9°
57.9°
RenaudinExtmag
7.9°
7.8°
14.9°
54.8°
RenaudinSn
20.1°
20.4°
34.8°
86.5°
Sabatini
8.0°
8.1°
15.3°
49.5°
SabatiniExtacc
10.8°
11.4°
19.6°
52.3°
SabatiniExtaccExtmag
10.8°
11.4°
19.6°
52.3°
SabatiniExtmag
7.7°
7.8°
14.9°
49.4°

Table 10. Precision according to sampling with all motions and with/without magnetic perturbations.

Balance between the precision and the stability

Algorithms
Motions
Devices
Magnetic Perturbations

*Stability is a moving STD with a window of 0.1s.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been partially supported by the LabEx PERSYVAL-Lab (ANR–11-LABX-0025), EquipEx KINOVIS (ANR-11-EQPX-0024). We thank J.F. Cuniberto for the smartphone handler, M. Heudre for his help in designing the experimental platform, J. Zietsch and G. Dupraz-Canard for having walked for hours to record data and M. Razafimahazo for providing the iOS app to record datasets.

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