A New Method for Measuring Angular Increments Based on a Tri-Axial Accelerometer and a Tri-Axial Magnetometer

Abstract Tri-axial gyroscopes used to be the only instrument used to measure the angular increments of airplanes. However, because there were no reference devices, drift and accumulation errors affected the accuracy of the estimated attitude. In this paper, we propose a novel method for measuring angular increments based on a tri-axial accelerometer and a triaxial magnetometer. Then, we mathematically proved the feasibility of the proposed method. The results of our simulation and experimental tests indicated that the proposed method accurately indicates the attitude of an airplane.