Rapid and Inexpensive Inertia Tensor Estimation From a Single Object Throw

Abstract

The inertia tensor is an important parameter in many engineering fields, but measuring it can be cumbersome and involve multiple experiments or accurate and expensive equipment. We propose a method to measure the moment of inertia tensor of a rigid body from a single spinning throw by attaching a small and inexpensive stand-alone measurement device consisting of a gyroscope, accelerometer, and a reaction wheel. The method includes a compensation for the increase of moment of inertia due to adding the measurement device to the body, and additionally obtains the location of the centre of gravity of the body as an intermediate result. Experiments performed with known rigid bodies show that the mean accuracy is around 2%. Monte Carlo simulations reveal invariance to direction of spin and positioning of the measurement device, but show some sensitivity to noise.