Attitude Estimation Using Redundant Inertial Measurement Units for the Control of a Camera Stabilization Platform

In this brief, a three-axis gimbaled platform for the active stabilization of film and broadcast cameras is considered. To decouple the attitude of the camera from the motion of the operator, accurate estimation of the platform attitude is necessary. Attitude estimation strategies based on extended Kalman filter (EKF) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF) are developed, which fuse redundant measurements of inertial measurement units (IMUs) mounted at different positions of the platform. This brief extends the state of the art, where typically a single IMU or redundant IMUs placed at the same position are used. The performance of the EKF and UKF is analyzed and compared with an EKF using only a single IMU by measurement results of a prototype platform.