Minimal Spatial Accelerometer Configurations

Abstract

It is well established that it is necessary to use a minimum of six accelerometers to determine the general motion of a rigid body. Using this minimum number of accelerometers generally requires that a nonlinear differential equation be solved for the angular velocity and that the estimate of angular velocity that is obtained from the solution of this equation be used in the calculation of the specific force at a point. This paper serves two main purposes. First it discusses, for the first time, the geometric conditions that must be satisfied by an arrangement of six accelerometers so that it is possible, in principle, to determine the motion of the body to which they are attached. Second, a special class of minimal accelerometer configurations that yields angular acceleration as a linear combination of accelerometer measurements is identified, and a design methodology for this special class is presented.