Design and Implementation of MARG Sensors for 3-DOF Orientation Measurement of Rigid Bodies

This paper presents the latest design and implementation of the Magnetic, Angular Rate, and Gravity (MARG) sensor module. The MARG sensor module is designed for measuring 3-DOF orientations in real time without singularities. Each MARG sensor contains orthogonally mounted triads of micromachined rate sensors accelerometers, and magnetometers for a total of nine sensor components. With an integrated microcontroller the overall form factor is less than one cubic inch. Digital data output rate is 100 Hz. To simplify calibration procedures and filtering algorithms, it is important that the response of the individual sensor components is linear within the typical operating regions. Experiments were conducted utilizing a precision tilt table and results indicate that all the sensor components are linear. A simple hand calibration method that requires no specialized equipment is also described. It was validated by experiments that indicate hand calibration produces results that are nearly equivalent to those obtained following precision tilt table calibration.
Presented at the Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation held in Taipei, Taiwan on 14-19 September 2003.