Rotational Testbed Simulator: An Investigation of Complex Rotational Testbed Motion for the Test and Evaluation of Inertial Measurement Units

Jason K. Bingham and Michael R. Walker II

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The use of rotational testbeds is ubiquitous in the test and evaluation of inertial sensors and systems. Rotational testbed use is regularly reduced to static states that are employed over long integration windows leading to data aggregation. The transitions between states are ignored and data aggregation masks potentially useful signals. One challenge to utilizing data collected under non-static motion is modeling the data. In this paper, we present the structure of an open source software (OSS) package designed to model the specific forces and angular rates produced by a rotational testbed with an an arbitrary number of rotational axes. The software package is of benefit to both centrifuge and multi-axis rate table tests. We establish the usefulness of the software by performing simulations of a physical experiment performed on a three-axis rate table and comparing the simulation results to the data collected from a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU). The simulations demonstrate that table axis misalignments may be identified by comparing the results of table data to ideal simulations. Index Terms—Inertial signals, rotational testbeds, inertial sensor testing, open source software
Published in:	2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) April 28 - 1, 2025 Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	142 - 145
Cite this article:	Bingham, Jason K., Walker, Michael R., II, "Rotational Testbed Simulator: An Investigation of Complex Rotational Testbed Motion for the Test and Evaluation of Inertial Measurement Units," 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), Salt Lake City, UT, April 2025, pp. 142-145.
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