Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) in Mobile Robots over the Last Five Years: A Review

摘要

Robots and especially mobile robots have experienced rapid growth, making them part ofeveryday life. An inertial measurement unit (IMU), which is a set of sensors, plays an important rolein mobile robots’ navigation. Data collected by the IMU sensors on a robot are properly convertedand useful information is calculated concerning, i.e., position, orientation, and acceleration. With theadvancement of technology, IMUs have been transformed from large and complex devices into small,flexible, and efficient ones. The main sensors included in an IMU are the gyroscope, the accelerometer,and the magnetometer. Additionally, there are other sensors such as a barometer, a temperature sensor,a pressure sensor, or even an attitude sensor. The components that an IMU consists of are many and themain differences concern the technology they integrate, the designer purpose, and the specificationsset by the manufacturer. The purpose of this review is a comparative presentation of 42 IMU modelsfrom 7 different manufacturers over the last five years comparing main features such as structuredetails, connectivity, and communication protocols. Moreover, statistical results are quantitatively andqualitatively presented providing a future user the possibility to select the proper IMU.