Methods and systems for vertical trajectory determination and automatic jump detection

A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement instructions to:

• measure a rate of turn of an IMU-baro, an acceleration of the IMU-baro, and a barometric pressure;
• estimate, according to a first Kalman filter operation, a roll and pitch of the IMU-baro based on the rate of turn and the acceleration;
• provide the roll and pitch estimate from the first Kalman filter operation to a second Kalman filter operation;
• estimate, according to the second Kalman filter operation, a vertical position and a vertical velocity of the IMU-baro based on the acceleration, the barometric pressure, and the roll and pitch estimate;
• determine the vertical position and the vertical velocity of the IMU-baro based on the estimate of the vertical position and the vertical velocity;
• record time-series data of both a vertical component of the acceleration and the estimate of the vertical velocity of the IMU-baro;
• detect a potential jump by comparing the vertical component of the acceleration to one or more acceleration thresholds;
• and
• validate the potential jump by comparing a difference between a maximum velocity and a minimum velocity within a threshold range of the potential jump in the time-series data of the estimate of the vertical velocity of the IMU-baro to a velocity threshold.

An apparatus for jump detection including an inertial measurement unit (IMU) integrated with a barometric altimeter in the same apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

• a first Kalman filter connected to a rate of turn input and to an acceleration input to estimate a roll and pitch of the apparatus based on the rate of turn input and the acceleration input;
• a second Kalman filter connected to the acceleration input, to a barometric pressure input, and to the first Kalman filter;
• the second Kalman filter cascaded with the first Kalman filter to receive the estimate of the roll and pitch of the apparatus from the first Kalman filter and to estimate a vertical position and a vertical velocity of the apparatus based on the acceleration input, the barometric pressure input using barometric altimeter, and the estimate of the roll and pitch of the apparatus;
• and
• a processor connected to the first Kalman filter and to the second Kalman filter, the processor configured to:
• record time-series data of both a vertical component of the acceleration input and the estimate of the vertical velocity of the apparatus;
• detect a potential jump by comparing the vertical component of the acceleration input to one or more acceleration thresholds;
• and
• validate the potential jump by comparing a difference between a maximum velocity and a minimum velocity within a threshold range of the potential jump in the time-series data of the estimate of the vertical velocity of the apparatus to a velocity threshold.