Feasibility analysis of accelerometer configuration of non-gyro micro inertial measurement unit

A sufficient condition is given to determine if a configuration of accelerometers of non-gyro micro inertial measurement unit (NGMIMU) is feasible. NGMIMU uses only accelerometers to compute the motion of a moving body. If the condition is satisfied, the angular acceleration and the linear acceleration in three directions can be expressed by the linear combination of the angular velocity and the accelerometer output. And the posture of a moving body can be estimated using a numerical iteration algorithm. Two configurations of accelerometers are analyzed in detail and the results verify the correctness of the condition. This research serves as an important criterion for the research of other problems of NGMIMU. © 2006 IEEE.