Obtaining translation from a 6-DOF MEMS IMU — an overview

In freehand 3D Ultrasound (3D-US) scanning one needs to track a B-mode scanner across a subject of interest to construct the 3D image. In this paper we use a compact IMU (inertial measurement unit), as an alternative method that have certain advantages compared to other conventional methods. However IMUs accumulate translational errors thus we study if we can overcome them by low pass filtering and making assumptions on the nature of the introduced drift. We also briefly expound on alternative methods of obtaining translation by only using either the acceleration output or the orientation output. We then interpret the results of our experiments and expound we finally conclude with further improvements that can be made. We hope that this paper would be a good introduction to research using 6-DOF (degrees of freedom) MEMS IMUs that are becoming more accessible and have a wide range of applications.