Can I use the IMU to estimate displacement along an axis?

[kylerlaird]

I use an IMU2 to maintain my tractor's heading.  I would like to use it to estimate displacement over the 100ms period between my (10Hz) GPS updates.  For now, I am only interested in displacement along X.  In other words, if Y is aligned with the line I'm driving, how far away from the line have I moved in the last 0.1 second?

 

I've tried accumulating acceleration[0] at various rates, resetting every 100ms, and moving the IMU back and forth by hand.  It seems to be only vaguely related to displacement along X.

 

Is this a reasonable thing to do with the IMU?  Am I missing something obvious?

 

Thank you.

 

--kyler

[DrWino]

IMHO - it is not possible to perform position odometry accurately using just a compass/IMU. You need a positional reference - such as GPS. I have been following your work and really RTK is the way to go with dual-RTK for heading. I have also build such a system and it works well. The real problem is continued operation when RTK is momentarily lost. This is where I am hoping the IMU may come in handy.