Turntable IMU Calibration Algorithm Based on the Fourier Transform Technique

Abstract

The paper suggests a new approach to calibration of a micromechanical inertial measurement unit. The data are collected on a simple rotating turntable with horizontal (or close to) rotation axis. For such a turntable, an electric screwdriver with fairly low rotation rate can be used. The algorithm is based on the Fourier transform applied to the rotation experimental data, implemented as FFT. The frequencies and amplitudes of the spectral peaks are calculated and collected in a small set of data, and calibration is done explicitly with these data. Calibration of an accelerometer triad and choosing the IMU coordinate frame are reduced to approximating the collected data with an ellipsoid in three dimensions. With rotation frequency calculated as the peak frequency of accelerometer readings, calibration of the gyros is a straightforward linear least square problem. The algorithm is purely algebraic, requires no iterations and no initial guess on the parameters, and thus encounters no convergence problems. The algorithm was tested both with simulated and experimental data, with some promising results.