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Working principle of Epson inertial measurement unit

Jan 21,2025
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The IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) mainly relies on its internal accelerometer and gyroscope to measure the angle information of an object. These two sensors work together and process data through specific algorithms to provide object attitude information, including pitch angle, roll angle, and yaw angle.

The principle of IMU measuring angle information

1. Accelerometer:

Principle: An accelerometer works by measuring the linear acceleration of an object in three directions. In a stationary or uniform linear motion state, an accelerometer can measure the components of gravitational acceleration in three axes, thereby calculating the tilt angle (pitch angle and roll angle) of an object.

Application: Without external force, the accelerometer can accurately measure pitch and roll angles without cumulative error. This is because the gravitational acceleration is a constant vector pointing towards the center of the earth. By measuring the angle between the gravitational acceleration and the axes of the IMU, the tilt angle of the object can be determined.

2. Gyroscope:

Principle: Gyroscopes are used to measure the angular velocity of objects around various axes. When a gyroscope rotates around a certain axis, a force perpendicular to the axis of rotation (Coriolis force) is generated, which causes the sensitive components inside the gyroscope to deflect, thereby measuring the magnitude and direction of angular velocity.

Application: By integrating the angular velocity data measured by a gyroscope, the rotation angle (including yaw angle) of an object over a certain period of time can be obtained. However, due to the accumulation of errors (such as drift errors) during the integration process, gyroscopes often cannot maintain high-precision angle measurements for a long time when used alone.

IMU combines the readings of accelerometers and gyroscopes, and applies specific algorithms such as Kalman filtering, complementary filtering, etc. to fuse the data from these two sensors, providing accurate and stable attitude (angle) information. The accelerometer is used to correct the integral drift error of the gyroscope, while the gyroscope provides fast dynamic change information that cannot be directly measured by the accelerometer. This combination enables IMU to achieve high-precision angle measurement in various complex environments.

IMU measures the tilt angle (pitch angle and roll angle) of an object through an accelerometer, and measures the angular velocity through a gyroscope and integrates it to obtain the rotation angle (yaw angle). By integrating the data from these two sensors, IMU can provide accurate and stable object posture information. This technology has a wide range of applications in aerospace, automotive and autonomous driving, robotics, drones and other fields.