Analysis and Experimental Verification of a Three-Dimensional Noncontacting Angular Motion Sensor

A three-dimensional noncontacting angular motion sensor, based on magnetometry, has been developed for velocity feedback in the ball wheel mechanism, which serves as the drivetrain for a class of omnidirectional mobile platforms. More generally, this scheme tracks rigid-body rotation about a fixed point with an undefined axis of rotation. The approach involves tracking the time-varying magnetic field of a permanent disc magnet embedded at the center of the sphere. This data is then used to determine the absolute orientation of the magnet axis. Finally, an approach based on the natural invariants of rigid-body motion is used to determine the instantaneous axis of rotation and the angular speed of the sphere about this axis. In this paper, the sensing scheme is formulated, effects of geometric offsets within the tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer are addressed, and results from experimental verification are presented.