Analog Devices debuts tri-axis inertial measurement unit
-- Test & Measurement World, 6/14/2007 5:49:00 AM
Analog Devices chose Sensors Expo to extend its iSensor intelligent sensor product family with a motion sensor that allows industrial designers to easily and cost-effectively equip their products with full-range, multi-axis inertial sensing. Leveraging Analog Devices’ iMEMS Motion Signal Processing Technology, the ADIS16355 inertial measurement unit (IMU) delivers performance and functionality previously reserved for defense, aerospace, and other high-end applications, at approximately one tenth of the cost, according to the company.
Combining three axes of angular rate sensing and three axes of acceleration sensing, the new IMU provides full six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) motion measurement to enable the benefits of complex motion analysis in applications such as vehicle-mounted cameras and antennas, commercial aircraft guidance units, robotics, and prosthetics. Other less integrated sensors require designers to perform complex, costly, and time-consuming motion testing and calibration across temperature and multiple axes before they can be assured the devices will provide accurate and reliable feedback. Analog Devices overcomes this barrier by submitting the ADIS16355 to a comprehensive factory calibration process and providing the new sensor with a simple, programmable interface to ensure it is both precise and ready for integration out-of-the-box. The ADIS16355 also includes full-temperature-range calibration, versus the room-temperature calibration available in the ADIS16350, and provides a bias temperature stability of 0.005 degree/second/°C.
The ADIS16355 6DOF sensor can be used anywhere high-performance position or motion detection is required. In aircraft, ships, truck fleets, agricultural equipment, and other vehicles that rely on GPS (global positioning system) satellite navigation to maintain accurate positional information, the IMU compensates for GPS signal loss or vehicle-induced signal irregularities. By detecting tiny shifts in linear acceleration and angular movement, the ADIS16355 provides dead reckoning, allowing vehicles to remain on course until a lost GPS signal is restored. In addition to navigation, the ADIS16355 can be used in motion-control applications, including highly sensitive robotic devices, where the IMU helps ensure that precision movements can be repeated thousands of times.
With similar devices ranging in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars, many applications have been unable to afford the level of precision enabled by the ADIS16355 and ADIS16350, which also provide a 50-times improvement in sensor accuracy compared to other off-the-shelf inertial sensors.
“Since many motion sensors are shipped without calibration, their performance can be sensitive to changes in voltage, temperature, vibration, and the effects of other sensors in the IMU,” said Andy Garner, product line director for iSensor intelligent sensor products at Analog Devices. “Making such sensors useful within an already complex system is a challenge to even the best designers with access to the most sophisticated test and calibration equipment. By performing all critical IMU calibration and compensation in-house using a range of proprietary test capabilities, ADI can reduce system development time by up to 12 months, while potentially saving customers hundreds of thousands of dollars in test equipment costs.”
The ADIS16355 IMU provides six-degrees-of-freedom motion sensing, embedded calibration and sensor processing, sensor-to-sensor cross compensation, and improved signal stability (in-run bias stability of 0.015 degrees/second) in a form factor smaller than a 1-in. cube. Factory calibration and embedded cross-axial alignment compensation enable designers without sensor expertise to integrate motion-sensing technology. Both the ADIS16355 and ADIS16350 include a programmable SPI (serial peripheral interface) port that provides easy access for programming features such as filtering, sample-rate, power-management, self-test, and sensor condition status and alarms. The devices are also in-system tunable, allowing designers to quickly and easily debug their system and experiment with different configurations for design optimization.
The ADIS16355 will sample in July and release to full production in September. The device is priced at $359 per unit in 1000-unit quantities.
www.analog.com
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