Minimum settings calibration method for low-cost tri-axial IMU and magnetometer

This manuscript presents a minimum settings calibration method for low-cost tri-axial inertial measurement units (IMUs) and magnetometers. At first, we analyze the major defect of the traditional calibration methods for tri-axial accelerometers and magnetometers. To fix that problem, we utilize the ellipsoid model to calibrate the tri-axial accelerometer and magnetometer preliminarily, then complete the calibration work with at least two reference angular positions, and prove that two reference angular positions are minimum requirements in the calibration progress. Next, the tri-axial gyroscope is calibrated based on the nonlinear cost function with the aid of the pre-calibrated accelerometer. The simulation and real-world experiment results show that the proposed method is practical and effective, suggesting that this technique is a viable candidate for the applications that require IMUs and magnetometers.