Time synchronization and temporal ordering of asynchronous sensor measurements of a multi-sensor navigation system

In this article we propose a filter based method to solve the time synchronization and minimum delay temporal ordering problem of asynchronous sensor measurements. A problem which inevitably arise in the sensor fusion of a multi-sensor navigation system implemented in realtime on a general purpose operation system (OS) without using functionality dedicated to realtime applications. The time synchronization is done up to a constant error by linear filtering of time stamps given to each measurement. The filtered time stamps together with predicted future time stamps are then used in a measurement temporal ordering algorithm to achieve a minimal delay temporal ordering subject to a user specified jitter tolerance. Finally, experimental time synchronization and temporal ordering results from the system implemented with a typical set of navigation sensors are presented.