A novel numerical integrator for velocity and position estimation

Velocity and position are the most important signals used in industrial controllers such as proportional–integral–derivative controllers. While in some real-time applications like structural control, acceleration measurements are easily accessible via accelerometers. The velocity and position have to be estimated from the measured acceleration. In this paper, offset cancellation and high-pass filtering techniques are combined effectively to solve common problems in numerical integration of acceleration signals in real-time applications. The integration accuracy is improved compared with other numerical integrators. Experimental results on a linear servo actuator and a shake table illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.