12D force and acceleration sensing: A helpful experience report on sensor characteristics

The potential of six-axis acceleration sensors in the field of robotic manipulation applications is quite high and most of it has not been used yet - neither in theoretic literature nor in research experiments. When considering six-joint industrial manipulators with six-axis force/torque and six-axis acceleration sensing, many new possibilities arise: all ten inertial parameters of any object can be identified and objects can be recognized based on these parameters, position control behavior can be improved; non-contact forces can be extracted and force control performance can be improved; visual-servoing methods can use acceleration signals to become more robust. The authors made numerous experiments in the mentioned fields and recognized major weaknesses during the realization of prototypic research setups with six-axis acceleration sensors. These problems regard sensor drift, undesired sensor-internal dependencies as the influence of any distal sensor part, noise, and undesired crosstalk behavior. In order to benefit from acceleration signals, it is important to clearly overcome these problems. This paper analyzes typical systematic errors, characterizes them, and suggests important solution methods for a successful usage of acceleration information.