Uncertainty of angular displacement measurement with a MEMS gyroscope integrated in a smartphone

Low-cost inertial sensors have recently gained popularity and are now widely used in electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets. In this paper we present the results of a set of experiments aiming to assess the angular displacement measurement errors of a gyroscope integrated in a smartphone of a recent model. The goal is to verify whether these sensors could substitute dedicated electronic inclinometers for the measurement of angular displacement. We estimated a maximum error of 0.3 degrees (sum of expanded uncertainty and maximum absolute bias) for the roll and pitch axes, for a measurement time without referencing up to 1 h.