Calibration of Triaxial Accelerometers by Constant Rotation in the Gravitational Field

Published

December 13, 2021

Author(s)

Michael Gaitan, Jon Geist

Abstract

We extend the use of the intrinsic properties calibration method for triaxial accelerometers that we reported earlier from discrete angular steps to using a constant rotation rate to produce a time varying excitation in the earth's gravitational field. We show that this extension yields the low frequency calibration response of the device under test, and, whereas traditional vibration-based methods using shakers generally exhibit an increased measurement uncertainty with decreased excitation frequency, we show that this approach does not. We report results obtained from a commercial triaxial digital accelerometer from DC up to a 0.5 Hz rotation rate. The maximum rotation rate that we report is limited by our instrument; but we expect that the method can be extended to higher rotation rates with an upper limit constrained by what can be tolerated as a maximum centripetal acceleration.

Citation

Measurement

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2021.11052828

Local Download

Keywords

Accelerometer, calibration, intrinsic properties, constant rotation, gravity

Citation

Gaitan, M. and Geist, J. (2021), Calibration of Triaxial Accelerometers by Constant Rotation in the Gravitational Field, Measurement, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2021.11052828, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=932280 (Accessed October 21, 2025)