SENSORS


Inertial Measurement Toughens Up


A 9-DoF inertial measurement unit with CAN interface provides reliable operation when the going gets tough in agriculture and construction.


for autonomous off road, construction, agricultural and automotive vehicle applications. The OpenIMU300RI from Aceinna is an open-source IMU, which allows engineers to easily optimise an attitude, navigation or other algorithm for their vehicle or application and run it on the IMU. This minimises communication on the bus and frees-up their processor to do other things, or to even use a less expensive processor. The IMU or processed IMU data can be used for many applications including keeping a cab level, returning an arm to a specific position, keeping a bucket stable while travelling, locking out control for safety applications or supplementing GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data to keep a tractor on course, for example.


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RUGGED DESIGN This latest IMU has been designed to meet the demanding requirements of the off-road construction, agricultural and other vehicular markets. It is a sealed rugged module with CAN and RS232 interfaces through an IP67 Ampseal 16 connector. It also runs the professional- grade open-source navigation stack supported by Aceinna’s free Navigation Studio, complementing Aceinna’s popular OpenIMU300ZA 9-DoF IMU OEM module, which has SPI and UART interfaces.


Each unit is calibrated on precision


rugged, sealed, nine- degree-of-freedom (9- DoF) inertial measurement unit (IMU) has been released into the market


rate tables and in temperature chambers providing trustworthy 3D linear acceleration, 3D rotation rate and 3D magnetic field measurement information to designers of autonomous vehicle and other control systems. According to James Fennelly, Aceinna’s


Product Manager, with different vehicle platforms having different dynamics, the attitude, navigation or other algorithm needs to be tailored for each vehicle platform and application to get the best performance. “The Aceinna OpenIMU300RI open- source platform gives designers a flexible and simple-to-integrate IMU that can be easily optimised for a wide range of vehicles and applications,” he says.


PRECISE CONTROL In the past, designers who needed attitude information such as pitch, roll and yaw, had to choose between using a one-size-fits-all algorithm by purchasing a closed system such as a dynamic inclination sensor, or to design their own algorithm and have it run on their own processor. With such a closed system, optimisation of the algorithm for the platform or application is not possible. In such applications as precision excavation, there’s a need for multiple


❱ ❱ 9 Degree of Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit can be used in multiple automotive applications including off-road construction and agricultural duties


distributed IMUs and earlier, the data needed to be transferred to multiple processors, which creates high demand on the CAN bus. Now with this latest 9-DoF product, designers have additional choices. They can either load published open-source algorithms or they can optimise the published Aceinna algorithms for their own application. Alternatively, they can build their own custom algorithms and custom messages to transmit only processed data needed by their control system. All these options can be loaded directly right into the module. Because of its rugged design, the OpenIMU300RI can be mounted directly on construction and agriculture vehicles and attachments, which are exposed to the elements during operation or storage. It has an Ampseal 6 position IP67 rated connector. The module is completely over moulded in plastic and features nickel- plated brass bushings for mounting. Input power conditioning and protection circuitry is designed for and is qualified for use on 12V and 24V vehicles. It supports input voltages between 5 and 32 V.


DAQ, Sensors & Instrumentation Vol 2 No. 2 /// 19


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