Eect of earths rotation on angular velocity and acceleration

readings of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)

Consider an IMU which is powered on at time t = 0 and kept stationary at a point on the
earths surface. The IMU measures angular velocities and linear accelerations in a right-handed
coordinate frame, denoted by X
imu
(t), xed to it (the body frame). A stationary coordinate
frame with origin at the center of the earth and with positive z axis pointing towards the north
pole (and with arbitrarily oriented x and y axes in the equatorial plane of the earth such that
the x, y, and z axes form a right-handed coordinate frame) is denoted X
earth,0
. Consider a
coordinate frame X
earth
(t) that is identical to X
earth,0
at time t = 0 and rotates at a xed
angular velocity
earth
7.2921 10
5
rad/sec about its z axis. Hence, X
earth
(t) is related to
X
earth,0
through a rotation matrix
R(t) =
_

_
cos(
earth
t) sin(
earth
t) 0
sin(
earth
t) cos(
earth
t) 0
0 0 1
_

_ . (1)
Since the IMU is stationary at a xed point on the earths surface, the coordinate frame
X
imu
(t) is related to the coordinate frame X
earth
(t) through a constant rotation matrix R
0
.
Thus, X
imu
(t) is related to X
earth,0
through the rotation matrix R
0
R(t). Hence, X
imu
(t) is
related to X
imu
(0) through the rotation matrix M(t) which may be found as
1
X
imu
(t) = X
imu
(0)M(t) (2)
X
earth,0
R
0
R(t) = X
earth,0
M(t)R
0
(3)
=M(t) = R
0
R(t)R
1
0
. (4)
The IMU measures angular velocity in its body frame, i.e., it measures a 3 1 vector
imu
=
[
imu,x
,
imu,y
,
imu,z
]
T
. The angular velocity measured in the inertial frame X
imu
(0) is
imu,0
=
M(t)
imu
. Hence
2
,

M(t) = S(
imu,0
)M(t) (5)
= S(M(t)
imu
)M(t) (6)
= M(t)S(
imu
)M
T
(t)M(t) (7)
= M(t)S(
imu
) (8)
where S(), with = [
x
,
y
,
z
]
T
being a 3 1 vector, is the skew symmetric matrix
S() =
_

_
0
z

y

z
0
x

y

x
0
_

_ . (9)
1
M(t) takes vectors from the X
imu
(t) frame to the X
imu
(0) frame.
2
We have utilized the property S(Ra) = RS(a)R
T
where R is a rotation matrix.
1
Noting that

R(t) = R(t)S(
e
) where
e
= [0, 0, 1]
T

earth
,
M(t)S(
imu
) =

M(t) = R
0
R(t)S(
e
)R
1
0
(10)
=S(
imu
) = R
0
S(
e
)R
1
0
. (11)
Thus, S(
imu
) is related to S(
e
) through a similarity transformation so that they share the
same eigenvalues. Since S(
e
) is given by
S(
e
) =
_

_
0
earth
0

earth
0 0
0 0 0
_

_ , (12)
the eigenvalues of S(
e
) are 0, j
earth
, and j
earth
. Hence, the angular velocity of the earth
can be obtained from the angular velocity readings of the IMU as the imaginary part of the
complex conjugate eigenvalues of S(
imu
). Noting that the eigenvalues of S() given by (9)
are 0 and j
_

2
x
+
2
y
+
2
z
, it follows that the magnitude of
imu
is equal to
earth
. This is
to be expected since the body frame of the IMU being at a xed orientation with respect to
the earth is rotating at the angular speed of the earth around the axis of rotation of the earth.
Hence, it can also be shown that
imu
is oriented along the z axis of the X
earth,0
coordinate
frame (i.e., the rotational axis of the earth). In other words, the direction cosines of the earths
axis of rotation with respect to the IMU body frame are

imu,x

earth
,

imu,y

earth
, and

imu,z

earth
. Hence,
R
0

imu
=
_

_
0
0
1
_

_
earth
. (13)
However, as expected, (13) does not suce to uniquely identify R
0
. This is because angular
velocity readings serve to identify only one direction in space (the earths rotational axis) and
provides no information on orientation in the perpendicular plane to that direction. If the IMU
is levelled with respect to the earths surface in the sense that the z axis of the IMU body frame
passes through the center of the earth, then the latitude of the point on earth at which the
IMU is located is given by 90 degrees minus the angle between the z axis of the X
imu
coordinate
frame and the z axis of the X
earth,0
coordinate frame, i.e.,
=

2
cos
1

imu,z

earth
. (14)
If, however, the IMU is not levelled with respect to the earths surface, the accelerometer
readings must be used to nd the direction to the earths center. With the IMU at rest on the
earths surface, the accelerometer readings are due to two eects:
1. the acceleration due to gravity directed towards the center of the earth
2. the centripetal acceleration directed towards the earths rotational axis and orthogonal
to it.
2
g
w j
2
rcos( )
j
z
a
IMU
Earths
rotational axis
Equatorial
plane
Figure 1: Accelerations seen by an IMU stationary on the earths surface.
These two acceleration eects are depicted in Figure 1. The magnitude of the accelera-
tion due to gravity is g 9.8 m/sec
2
and the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration is

2
earth
r
earth
cos() where r
earth
6.378 10
6
m is the radius of the earth. Hence, the IMU
measures an acceleration vector [a
imu,x
, a
imu,y
, a
imu,z
]
T
in its body frame with magnitude
_
a
2
imu,x
+ a
2
imu,y
+ a
2
imu,z
=
_
g
2
+
4
earth
r
2
earth
cos
2
() + 2g
2
earth
r
earth
cos
2
() (15)
and directed along a vector deected by an angle from the direction to the earths center
where
= tan
1
_

2
earth
r
earth
sin() cos()
g +
2
earth
r
earth
cos
2
()
_
. (16)
The angle between the net acceleration vector and the net angular velocity vector given by
= cos
1
_
_

imu,x
a
imu,x
+
imu,y
a
imu,y
+
imu,z
a
imu,z
_

2
imu,x
+
2
imu,y
+
2
imu,z
_
a
2
imu,x
+ a
2
imu,y
+ a
2
imu,z
_
_
. (17)
satises
=

2
+ . (18)
3
Hence, we obtain the trigonometric equation
tan() = cot( ) =
1 + tan()

2
earth
r
earth
sin() cos()
g+
2
earth
r
earth
cos
2
()
tan()

2
earth
r
earth
sin() cos()
g+
2
earth
r
earth
cos
2
()
(19)
which, after simplication, yields
= tan
1
_
g +
2
earth
r
earth
g tan()
_
. (20)
Noting that g 9.8 m/sec
2
and
2
earth
r
earth
0.034 m/sec
2
, it follows from (20) that may be
neglected and


2
. (21)
4