INS-GPS Simplified Architecture for a Small Quadrotor Platform Used in Healthcare Logistics
摘要
This paper presents a simplified INS-GPS (Inertial Navigation System - Global Positioning System) architecture designed for a small quadrotor platform, aimed at optimizing healthcare logistics operations in urban environments. The proposed system integrates data from an onboard Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), composed of accelerometers and gyroscopes, with GPS signals to provide accurate and stable real-time navigation capabilities. By fusing inertial and satellite data through a lightweight algorithm tailored for low-power embedded systems, the platform ensures continuous position estimation even in scenarios where GPS signals are weak or temporarily lost, such as in dense urban areas or near hospital infrastructures. The hardware implementation includes a modular IMU-GPS interface integrated with a microcontroller unit, allowing for efficient data acquisition and processing. On the software side, a sensor fusion algorithm based on a complementary filter was developed to correct IMU drift using GPS updates, achieving a balance between accuracy and computational simplicity. Practical flight tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the navigation system, with position data collected and compared against theoretical trajectories. The results indicate a significant improvement in positional accuracy when using the fused INS-GPS solution versus standalone GPS or IMU data. The system demonstrates potential for real-world applications in healthcare logistics, such as medical supply delivery and emergency response, where reliability, efficiency, and precision are critical.