Embedded inertial sensor for tracking projectile impact on granular media

¹ Institute of Applied Physical Sciences and Engineering, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, No. 8 Duke Avenue, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China 215316
² Experimentalphysik V, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

^* e-mail: kh380@duke.edu

Published online: 7 June 2021

Abstract

Due to the opacity of most granular materials, it is often desirable to have three dimensional (3D) particle tracking techniques beyond optical imaging to explore granular dynamics. Using inertial measurement units (IMU) embedded in a projectile, we obtain the trajectory of projectile impacting on a granular medium under microgravity using tri-axial acceleration and angular velocity data. In addition to the standard algorithm for reconstruction, we emphasize solutions to various sources of error to determine projectile trajectory accurately.