Modeling of tri-axial accelerometers in a self-designed wearable inertial measurement unit

Abstract

This paper introduces a self-designed wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU-BMSJv2) and the calibration of its tri-axial accelerometers. We compare two popular accelerometer calibration approaches, the classical method (attitude dependent) and auto calibration method (attitude independent). Both these two calibration methods have been applied for the calibration of the self-designed IMU-BMSJv2; verification experiments have been carried out for the calibration of the tri-axial accelerometers. Experimental results show that although the auto-calibration method has the advantage of attitude independency, the classical calibration method can achieve better parameter estimation. We thus claim that the attitude dependent calibration method is still the first option considered when certain experimental conditions are satisfied.