A Robust Method for Validating Orientation Sensors Using a Robot Arm as a High-Precision Reference

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for evaluating the accuracy of orientation sensors commonly used in practical applications, utilizing measurements obtained from a commercial robotic manipulator as the reference instrumentation. The core concept of the method involves determining the rotational transformations between the robot's base frame and the sensor frame, as well as between the TCP (Tool Center Point) frame and the sensor frame, without requiring precise alignment. These transformations are assumed to be arbitrarily chosen, allowing the computation to rely solely on the logged TCP orientations and synchronized sensor measurements. The proposed approach enables systematic testing and evaluation of orientation sensing devices without necessitating exact measurement of the rotations between the sensor frame and the reference instrumentation. The method's effectiveness is demonstrated through the evaluation of an Inertial Navigation System module and the SLAM-IMU fusion capabilities of the HTC VIVE headset.