第57回自動制御連合講演会

2D05-2
2014年11月10日ー12日 群馬伊香保 ホテル天坊

Reduction of Noise in MEMS Output Signals by Kalman-filter Estimation

* M. M. Z. Shahadat, T. Mizuno, Y. Ishino and M. Takasaki (Saitama University)

Abstract- In many mechanical control systems, the addition of acceleration feedback to the controller is an
effective approach to improve system’s dynamics irrespective to disturbances on them. The servo accel-
erometers are commonly used to measure acceleration accurately in a low frequency range; however, a
conventional servo accelerometer attached to a system to measure acceleration makes the system rather
costlier. The use of low-cost Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) accelerometers to measure accel-
eration can overcome this difficulty; however, the acceleration signals measured by a MEMS accelerome-
ter typically contain noise. In this study, the Kalman filter technique is applied to reduce such noise as well
as to make the MEMS accelerometers suitable to use in an active system. The Kalman filter technique
used in this study estimates acceleration by minimizing the mean-square error of a series of measurements
conducted by MEMS accelerometer over time, containing noise (random variations) and other inaccura-
cies. It is observed that the estimated accelerations by using the Kalman filter tend more precise than those
based on measurement.
Key Words: Zero-power control, Zero-compliance, Negative stiffness, Voice coil motor

1 Introduction 2 Theory of Kalman Filter

The addition of an acceleration feedback to the controller The most common application of the KF is the naviga-
of a control system can effectively improve the dynamic of tion and control of aircraft and spacecraft. In this study, the
that system irrespective to disturbances on it 1). The servo KF is studied to reduce the noise level of the output signal
accelerometers are widely being used to measure accelera- of a MEMS accelerometer. The KF consists of two indi-
tions of control systems. Moreover, servo accelerometers vidual processes and the output of each process is used to
are suitable to measure micro tremor on a structure because the other process as input and continues these processes up
of its higher sensitivity and stability or more accurate phase to final iteration; the processes are: (a) state prediction, and
responses in the lower frequency range than those of other (b) state correction as shown in Fig. 1. To identify these two
vibration transducers. However, the servo accelerometers processes, the algorithm of the KF consists of two steps: (i)
are very expensive and using of commercial servo accel- time update and (ii) measurement update. To define the
erometers in a system to measure absolute acceleration state estimation problem, first we considered a state space
makes the system costlier. The use of low-cost MEMS model of a dynamic system and by using this model; the in-
(Micro-Electromechanical System) accelerometers to itial discrete states prediction is carried out. The Kalman
measure acceleration can overcome the difficulty related to filter algorithm utilized in this study is presented in Fig. 2
cost; however, the output signal of a MEMS accelerometer where the model of the system shown together to define the
contains noises; therefore, the applications of MEMS accel- states measurement. The state space model of a system, in-
erometers are restricted 2). In this study, the Kalman Filter cluding process noise and measurement noise can be repre-
(KF) technique is applied to reduce this noise as well as to sented as follows:
make the MEMS accelerometers suitable to use in an active
system.
The KF has been widely used in various fields during the
past decades, such as on-line failure detection, real time
prediction of vehicle motion, and prediction for maneuver-
ing target trajectories. The Kalman filter is a linear, dis-
crete-time, and finite-dimensional system. Its appearance is
a copy of the system that is estimated 3). In KF, the inputs
include the control signal and the difference value between
measured and estimated state variables; and by minimizing
these mean-square estimation errors, the optimal estimates
of the next step time-state variables can be derived 4). The
KF used in this study is an algorithm that uses a series of
measurements conducted by a MEMS accelerometer, con-
taining noise and other inaccuracies, and produces estimates
of next state considering the previous series of measure-
ments and possible estimation error, which tends more pre-
cise than those based on a single measurement. Fig. 1: Concept of KF algorithm

14PR0002/14/0000-1276 ￥400 © 2014 SICE

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 x& = Ax + Bu + q , (1) ( )(
K T = PT −1C ' / CPT −1C '+ R , ) (8)
y = Cx + r , (2)
PˆT = ( I − K T C ) PˆT −1 . (9)

( )
where x, A, B, C are state variables, state transition, control
input and measurement matrixes, respectively. The symbols ( )
where X and X̂ are the predicted value and esti-
u, q and r denote input variable vector, process noise vector mated value of ( X ) , respectively. Symbols K and P indi-
and measurement noise vector, respectively. The discrete cate the Kalman gain and estimation error, respectively.
formats of Eqs. (1) and (2) are used in the KF algorithm 3 Simulation and Experiment
with sampling time ∆t and are given as follows:
The influence of KF on the performance of a control sys-
X T = ϕX T −1 + φu + γ , (3) tem (PD) is analyzed theoretically by using the numerical
y = CX T + R , (4) simulation results shown in Fig. 3. The parameters regard-
ing the KF and system, which are used for numerical simu-
where ϕ = A∆t + I , φ = B∆t and γ = Q∆t . The subscript lation, are given in Table 1. To initialize the states predic-
T denotes the time step. The respective discrete KF algo- tion process in simulation, the state variable, state transition,
rithm is given as follows: input and measurement matrixes regarding a PD control
Time update system are considered as follows:
 x 0 1  0
X T −1 = ϕXˆ T −1 + Bu ,
 , B =  ki  , C = [1 1]
(5)
X = , A= 
 x&  0 0  
PT −1 = ϕPˆT −1ϕ '+Q . (6) m
It is assumed that the control system is subjected to a
Measurement update white Gaussian noise. Figure 3 shows the simulated posi-
tion and velocity of a PD controlled system at steady-state,
Xˆ T = X T −1 + K T ( yT − CX T −1 ) , (7)
where displacement is assumed as the feedback quantity. It
is observed that the KF can appropriately estimate the dis-
placement and velocity signals which contain sufficiently
low levels of noise. Moreover, it is observed that the feed-
back control based on the KF estimated displacement signal
provides a system with sufficiently low dynamic control
deviation.
With regard of the same reference input in experiment,
the output signals of the MEMS accelerometer are meas-
ured and the corresponding signals are estimated by the KF;
these measured and estimated signals are shown together in
Fig. 4. The acceleration and velocity signals are investigat-
ed for both zero and sinusoidal references. The velocity

Fig. 2: Algorithm of a Kalman filter attached with system

Fig 3: Effect of KF on performance of a control system: Fig. 4: Measured signal and KF-estimated signal:
(a) displacement signal, (b) velocity signal (a) zero reference, (b) sinusoidal reference

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 Table 1 Parameters used in simulations

Model Parameters Value Unit

Process 0.02  m 
noise vector    
(q) 0.02 m / s
Kalman
Filter Measure- 0.1  m 
ment noise    
vector (r) 0.1 m / s

Mass (m) 30 kg
System Actuator co-
45 N/A
efficient (ki)

signals are obtained by integrating the output signals of the

MEMS accelerometer. It is observed that the KF estimated
signal has a similar trend of the measured signal. The sig-
nals measured by the MEMS accelerometer contain unde-
sired high frequency signals (noise) and they are larger in
magnitude than the KF estimated signals. In case of accel-
eration, the KF estimated signals contain noise that is 75%
lower compared to that of the measured signals.
4 Conclusions
In this study, MEMS accelerometer is used to measure
accelerations and at the same time the KF is used to esti-
mate the same accelerations. In numerical simulation, it is
observed that the dynamics of control system based on KF
estimated feedback parameter is better than that based on
measured feedback parameter. The experimental results
showed that the KF can produce the signals with lower lev-
el of noise than that of direct measured signals.
Reference
1) M.M.Z. Shahadat, T. Mizuno, Y. Isino, and M. Ta-
kasaki, Cost-effective Implementation of Acceleration
Feedback to Vibration Isolation System Using Nega-
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MOVIC2012, 8639, (2012).
2) M.Y. Faisal, E.K. Can and J. N. David, Measurement
of Noise Characteristics of MEMS Accelerometers,
Solid-state Electronics, 47, 357/360, (2003).
3) S.B. Saurabh, P.S. Mahendra, An Adaptive Unscented
Kalman Filter for Tracking Sudden Stiffness Changes,
Mechanical System and Signal Processing, 49, 181/195,
(2014).
4) S.K. Yang, T.S. Liu, State Estimation for Predictive
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