Precision six degree-of-freedom motion tracking using inertial sensors

This thesis pertains to potential applications of accelerometers and gyroscopes for precision tracking of 6-DOF motion. Currently, there exist several techniques capable of motion tracking, but few are suitable for measurements at the micro scale. Most techniques assume idealized placement of inertial sensors on the body whose motion is of interest. Unfortunately, inertial sensors can't usually be positioned at the required idealized points and oriented along idealized axes. This is because of physical constraints (i.e. shape and size of inertial sensors) as well as unavoidable errors in their placement. To conform to realistic situations, the analysis used assumes no specific position and orientation of the sensors. Furthermore, the proposed analysis also accepts redundant information (in which more than minimum of six sensors are used to describe 6-DOF motion) in such a way that an optimal solution for motion can be achieved given excess information.