MEMS Accelerometer Specifications and Their Impact in Inertial Applications

TLDR: This work investigates and defines a set of testing methodology for MEMS accelerometers, making use of a 3D printer based testing platform and a scalable inertial sensor testing board, and results indicate that noise density has little impact on performance after inertial algorithms are applied.

Abstract: Recent development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers improved their performance. Coupled with their benefits of lower cost and smaller size, enabled their increased utilization in navigation, automotive and consumer devices. However, specification and testing methodologies of these devices are not robustly defined. This work investigates and defines a set of testing methodology for MEMS accelerometers, making use of a 3D printer based testing platform and a scalable inertial sensor testing board. Specification results show that Kionix KXRB5 and Invensense MPU6000 perform the best of the devices tested. Furthermore, commonly used inertial algorithms were applied to study the impact of accelerometer choice in an inertial navigation system (INS). Across a attitude estimation and dead reckoning tests, results indicate that noise density has little impact on performance after inertial algorithms are applied. Cross-axis, bias variability and step motion specification results are better indicators of performance after inertial algorithms are applied. Acknowledgements iii iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents and sister for their continuous support throughout my years in undergraduate and graduate school. Your support and encouragement gave me the motivation to learn new things and pursue my interests. I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. David A. Johns, for providing guidance and advice throughout the thesis and for all his insights during our weekly discussions throughout the project. I would like to thank you for your approach to the project, giving me a high degree of freedom and expression in this project. Finally, I would also like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to pursue this project, it was a humbling and extremely rewarding experience. I would also like to thank Peter Timmermans and Alon Green for your insight during the early stages of the project which helped shaped different aspects of the project. I learned a lot in regards to the considerations needed for transportation purposes. Finally, I would also like to thank Wahid Rahman, for giving me an outlet to discuss my ideas with.