An inertial navigation system for robot measurement and control

The present paper deals with application of inertial sensors in the field of robotics. Quite in contrast to conventional applications, short integration times and higher acceleration values are considered. Furthermore, when used as an dynamic augmentation of robot measurement and control, the static sensor offsets can be handled with much more ease. The author presents a gyroless inertial sensor head for the sensing of motion induced acceleration on robotic mechanisms. The sensor signals are used for real-time calculation of position and orientation changes of the mechanism. A discussion of error sources is included, and a simulation of a two dimensional sensor arrangement demonstrates the influence of sensor and mounting errors. Further more, the utilization of the system as a redundant signal source for measurement and control, as well as the possibility of robot vibration damping is analyzed