Design and implementation of a 12-axis accelerometer suite

We report on a 12-axis accelerometer suite which utilizes 12-axis linear acceleration measurements from four 3-axis accelerometers. This system is capable of deriving linear acceleration, angular acceleration and angular velocity via simple matrix operations. It also releases the requirement of accelerometer installation at the center of mass as well as eliminates the necessity of gyro implementation as in the traditional inertia measurement unit (IMU). An optimal configuration of the system is proposed based on the analysis of rigid body dynamics and matrix theory. We also report the results of experimental evaluation. We believe the analysis presented in this paper would benefit the practical design of IMUs in the future.