DEVELOPING WIRELESS IMUS TO SIMPLIFY INTEGRATION INTO DYNAMIC SYSTEMS

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of wireless inertial measurement units (IMUs) designed to transmit data from a prototype Mars rover to a remote base station. These nine degree of freedom, multi-chip modules provide measurements for linear acceleration, angular rotation velocity, and magnetic field vectors for the rover’s chassis and robotic arm end-effector. To facilitate integration into these dynamic systems, each unit is independently powered and has a form factor of 108 cc. IMU data is sent from 32-bit microcontrollers with embedded IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi to the rover via UDP transport through a custom publish/subscribe distributed IP protocol. Data is relayed over two circular polarized omnidirectional antennas to the base station’s dual linear MIMO Yagi-Uda antenna. The information gathered provides operators a heading and orientation to improve situational awareness, as camera visuals are often inadequate.