A sensor fusion approach to angle and angular rate estimation

Rotary encoders are the most common sensors to measure angles in mechatronic and robotic components, e.g., servo motors or robot joints. Especially, if encoders are not mounted on the motor shaft but on the output side of geared motors, high encoder resolutions are required. Resolution requirements may increase further if velocities are to be derived from the encoder signals, e.g., for motion control purposes. To avoid noise amplification problems when estimating angular rates from encoder signals, angular velocity sensors may be employed instead. However, a significant drawback of angular rate sensors - particularly of cheap MEMS gyroscopes - is their drift.