An experimental setup for characterization of Inertial measurement unit under dynamic conditions

The use of Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) developed with Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) technology is significantly increasing in the automotive market. Despite this increase in MEMS-based usage, the metrological characterization of such devices in non-standard conditions is still a research gap that needs to be investigated. Both academia and manufacturers miss considering a thorough characterization of MEMS inertial platforms under real environmental stresses (such as random vibration and mechanical shocks) that these devices must endure during their lifecycle. With this regard, the article introduces a specific test plan and an experimental setup for the characterization of IMUs under dynamic conditions and subjected to two stimuli simultaneously: a controlled, repeatable movement and a wideband Gaussian noise which is the typical stress environment that electronics suffer in automotive applications. The data analysis highlights the impact that different kinds of vibration noise produced by automobiles or motorcycles could have on the raw data acquired by the IMU.