The authors here present the results from their experiments on inertial navigation in crash testing of vehicles. A custom designed inertial measurement unit (IMU) has been developed, and several tests in dummy calibration rigs as well as full-scale Euro NCAP collisions have been performed at their partners' crash test laboratories. For reference, the IMU data is compared to camera data and traditional single-axis inertial sensors. In order to allow complete 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) tracking of obscured objects such as the dummy head during inflation of the airbag, Imego has developed a compact and lightweight inertial measurement unit (IMU) in cooperation with SAAB Automobile, Volvo Cars and Autoliv. This unit is small enough to fit into the head, chest and feet of standard crash test dummies and complies with the full range of motions experienced by crash test dummies in car crash testing. To reach 500 g of acceleration range they employ triple sets of accelerometers, and by using the proven Imego Butterfly MEMS gyroscopes they achieve an angular range of +/-6000 deg of angle/s while maintaining navigation-grade attitude stability. In conjunction to the crash test IMU hardware, they have also developed an end-user graphical application suite to enable test engineers to easily run measurements and process the data. The post-processing application is built on an application-optimized version of their in-house inertial navigation engine and presents computed (navigated) data such as angular acceleration, angular rate, attitude, acceleration, velocity and position in a fixed laboratory reference frame. It also allows the user to select and study the motion of any point of interest on the same rigid body as the IMU and provides animated 3D visualization of the motion. Compared to industry standard crash test measurement systems, the use of a high quality MEMS IMU in vehicle crash testing enables tracking of obscured objects, provides high quality angular acceleration and rate data, allows free sensor placement within rigid bodies and supports simulation models better than individual inertial sensors can.
MEMS-based inertial navigation in vehicle crash testing
Symposium Gyro Technology, 2009 ; 19/1-19/12
2009
12 Seiten, 9 Bilder, 3 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
MEMS-Based Inertial Navigation in Vehicle Crash Testing
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2009
|Integrated MEMS Inertial/GPS navigation system
Emerald Group Publishing | 2002
TIBKAT | 1971
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