A Low-Cost Calibration Method for Low-Cost MEMS Accelerometers Based on 3D Printing

Area of Science:

• Embedded Systems
• Sensor Technology
• Metrology

Background:

• Accelerometers are crucial sensors in embedded systems, but suffer from nonlinearities due to error terms and axis misalignment.
• These errors accumulate over time, degrading accuracy in applications like navigation systems.
• Existing calibration methods are often complex, expensive, and require specialized laboratory equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a simple, practical, and low-cost method for accelerometer calibration.
• To leverage 3D printing technology for accessible sensor calibration.
• To improve the accuracy of accelerometer outputs for various applications.

Main Methods:

• Development of a calibration procedure utilizing a 3D printed polyhedron.
• Simultaneous calibration of up to 14 sensors per polyhedron.
• Experimental validation using a low-cost accelerometer sensor.

Main Results:

• Significant reduction in the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the accelerometer output.
• Demonstrated higher performance compared to existing similar calibration proposals.
• Validation of the method's effectiveness with low-cost sensors.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a low-cost, accessible solution for accelerometer calibration.
• Enables calibration anywhere, anytime, without reliance on laboratory settings or expert personnel.
• Compensating for inherent sensor errors leads to substantially increased output accuracy.