An Algorithm for Sensor Data Uncertainty Quantification

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel algorithm for quantifying and reducing measurement uncertainty in sensor data, specifically for temperature and humidity sensors, using oversampled measurements and Gaussian noise assumptions, outperforming traditional filters.

Contribution

The paper presents a new algorithm that requires only oversampled sensor measurements and Gaussian noise assumptions, avoiding the need for state update equations or a map of physical quantities.

Findings

Achieves an average uncertainty reduction of 10.3% in humidity estimates.

Incurred only a 5.3% overhead in execution time compared to minimal measurement algorithms.

Requires 0.05% more instructions per iteration in a RISC-V implementation.

Abstract

This article presents an algorithm for reducing measurement uncertainty of one physical quantity when given oversampled measurements of two physical quantities with correlated noise. The algorithm assumes that the aleatoric measurement uncertainty in both physical quantities follows a Gaussian distribution and relies on sampling faster than it is possible for the measurand (the true value of the physical quantity that we are trying to measure) to change (due to the system thermal time constant) to calculate the parameters of the noise distribution. In contrast to the Kalman and particle filters, which respectively require state update equations and a map of one physical quality, our algorithm requires only the oversampled sensor measurements. When applied to temperature-compensated humidity sensors, it provides reduced uncertainty in humidity estimates from correlated temperature and humidity measurements. In an experimental evaluation, the algorithm achieves average uncertainty reduction of 10.3 %. The algorithm incurs an execution time overhead of 5.3 % when compared to the minimum algorithm required to measure and calculate the uncertainty. Detailed instruction-level emulation of a C-language implementation compiled to the RISC-V architecture shows that the uncertainty reduction program required 0.05 % more instructions per iteration than the minimum operations required to calculate the uncertainty.