SIRU development. Volume 1: System development

A complete description of the development and initial evaluation of the Strapdown Inertial Reference Unit (SIRU) system is reported. System development documents the system mechanization with the analytic formulation for fault detection and isolation processing structure; the hardware redundancy design and the individual modularity features; the computational structure and facilities; and the initial subsystem evaluation results

Flight test results of the strapdown hexad inertial reference unit (SIRU). Volume 2: Test report

Results of flight tests of the Strapdown Inertial Reference Unit (SIRU) navigation system are presented. The fault tolerant SIRU navigation system features a redundant inertial sensor unit and dual computers. System software provides for detection and isolation of inertial sensor failures and continued operation in the event of failures. Flight test results include assessments of the system's navigational performance and fault tolerance. Performance shortcomings are analyzed

An improved robot for bridge inspection

This paper presents a significant improvement from the previous submission from the same authors at ISARC 2016. The robot is now equipped with low-cost cameras and a 2D laser scanner which is used to monitor and survey a bridge bearing. The robot is capable of localising by combining a data from a pre-surveyed 3D model of the space with real-time data collection in-situ. Autonomous navigation is also performed using the 2D laser scanner in a mapped environment. The Robot Operating System (ROS) framework is used to integrate data collection and communication for navigation

Low-Cost Skewed Redundant IMU Configuration for State-Space Recovery in a Saturated Environment

Low-cost sensors for state space determination can be used successfully for ground vehicles, robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Internet-of-Things applications. When a high fidelity Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) cannot be obtained for state space determination, low-cost sensors can be used to satisfactory standards, despite their limitations in capabilities, by using various implementation techniques. The research group was experimentally investigating state space information of an unstable flying vehicle for motion simulation validation. The high fidelity motion capture system would intermittently lose track of the flight vehicle which lost critical flight data. The goal was to determine the potential of low-cost off-the-shelf sensors to provide a lower fidelity backup source of data. There were periods during the flight test where the flying vehicle was known to experience rotation rates higher than the saturation limit of the low-cost sensors. The purpose of the experiment was to analyze the ability of a skewed-redundant IMU (SRIMU) configuration to extend the dynamic range of the MEMS gyroscope and to reconstruct body axis rotation rates that would have otherwise been saturated. The experiment was able to determine the potential of low-cost off the shelf IMU sensors in a skewed redundant IMU configuration to reconstruct saturated values. There was success in extending the dynamic range of the sensors in cases where a rotation matrix could be utilized to transform data between reference frames. However there were instances where the dynamic range could not be extended due to relative differences in time between sensors which incurred over the duration of the flight tests