Dynamic calibration of triaxial accelerometers with simple setup

In the dynamic techniques for calibration of triaxial accelerometers, the sensor is held in motion during data acquisition; the acquired time-varying acceleration is in general more informative than the constant acceleration acquired in static calibration approaches. Dynamic methods, however, typically require complex and expensive calibration setups based on high-precision moving benches, to guarantee accurate a-priori knowledge of the acceleration applied to the sensors under test. This article presents a dynamic calibration procedure working with a very simple and inexpensive setup: a tilted, freely-rotating bench, made of a simple wheel mounted on a static support. The accelerometer is fastened to the bench, which is then manually set into rotation; the acceleration signal is then acquired while the bench is freely rotating. No a-priori knowledge is required about the bench rotation: the proposed calibration procedure estimates both the calibration parameters and the bench motion. To keep the setup as simple as possible, an effort has been made to minimize also the necessity of prior knowledge of the bench geometry: only the distance of the sensor from the rotation axis needs to be known, which can be easily obtained through direct measurement on the bench. The proposed calibration has been tested both on synthetic data, to prove the absence of estimation biases and to evaluate the potential accuracy of the estimated parameters, and on real data from a MEMS triaxial accelerometer, to assess the practical usability and measure the actual precision of the procedure.