IMU SENSOR SIGNAL INTEGRATION AND DISPLAY IN 3 D GRAPHIC

Abstract

Signals read from the inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting of accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer may give incorrect values of the required information even after the device has been normally calibrated. This is due to the changing environmental influence, or external disturbances; resulting in additional errors that are either constant or time varying. The integration or fusion of these signals appropriately will help increase the accuracy of the results. Furthermore, the 3D visual display of the object orientation in real time will be more intuitive and make tracking of the device movement easier. This paper elucidates the concept and steps involved in the IMU data fusion using Madgwick algorithm and later gives an example of 3D graphic display of the orientation of a simulated object on a notebook PC screen using Processing program. All of the remaining data processing tasks are performed simply on an Arduino single board microcontroller which is connected serially to the notebook via a USB communication port.