DEVELOPING WIRELESS IMUS TO SIMPLIFY INTEGRATION INTO DYNAMIC SYSTEMS

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.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection