El-Sheimy, NaserSesay, Abu-BakerAli, Abdelrahman2013-09-162013-11-122013-09-162013http://hdl.handle.net/11023/984Pedestrian navigation has received significant attention in the last few years due to potential development in the smartphones’ technologies. Todays, most smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices are fully packed with the required sensors that can provide navigation information such as Global Positioning System (GPS), triad gyroscope, triad accelerometer, triad magnetometer, and pressure sensors. The pedestrian dead-reckoning (PDR) technique requires traveled distance and direction in order to estimate the user position. Total distance can be determined using the step counting and step length estimation techniques using accelerometer data while, the relative attitude information can be estimated using gyroscope and accelerometer data. However, absolute heading information is required which can be provided using GPS or magnetometer. In GPS-denied environments, a magnetometer is used as the main source of heading update. However, the EMF is experienced to severe degradation in such environments which affects the overall performance of the magnetometer. Different techniques are proposed to overcome the deficiency due to the distortion in the sensed magnetic field to improve the overall performance of the magnetometer in the cluttered environments. For that end, this research is targeted towards improving the attitude estimation for pedestrian navigation in the harsh environments by developing sensor fusion technique to utilize the gyroscope rate in complementary with accelerometer and magnetometer data. Also, several contributions for step detection and step length estimation techniques are achieved to improve the overall performance and accuracy of the Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) algorithm.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Electronics and ElectricalGeotechnologyPedestrianMagnetometer CalibrationIndoor NavigationHeading EstimationLow-Cost Sensors-Based Attitude Estimation for Pedestrian Navigation in GPS-Denied Environmentsdoctoral thesis10.11575/PRISM/26793