Distributed IMU, encoder and laser tracker data of a hydraulic flexible link

This dataset contains one experimental run of a hydraulic single-link flexible manipulator instrumented with inertial measurement units (IMUs) along the link. It accompanies the paper “Modular Geometric Complementary Filtering of Distributed IMUs and Deformation Observation for a Flexible Link” (S. Yaqubi, A. H. Barjini, J. Mattila). Experiment. The link is a 4.5 m steel beam with a 60 × 60 × 3 mm hollow section and a 20 kg payload at the end point. It is actuated by a hydraulic cylinder and moves in a vertical plane. Five Murata SCHA63T-K03 IMUs are mounted at 0.68, 1.53, 2.55, 3.51 and 4.44 m from the joint. A Leica AT960-LR laser tracker with a Leica T-Probe measures the position and orientation of the end point, and a SICK AFM60A absolute encoder (18-bit single-turn) measures the joint angle. All signals were read over EtherCAT by a Speedgoat real-time target machine. The run lasts 471 s, with 320,435 samples at irregular intervals (1 ms median). Content: signals.csv: the signals of the run as recorded. This covers the accelerometers and gyroscopes of the five IMUs, the encoder, the tracker position and pitch, and the end point of the coordinate IMU chain as logged by its real-time implementation. fig3_endpoint.csv to fig7_layouts.csv: the data plotted in Figs. 3 to 7 of the paper. These are the end point position, pitch and velocity; the tip deflection and its spectrum; the joint angle; the observer innovations, gains and bias estimates; the modal coordinates and mode shapes of the deformation field; and the second IMU layout with the bending angles at the stations of each layout. parameters.json: the setup, processing settings, identified calibration constants and alignment constants. README.md: column definitions, frames and conventions, and check values that reproduce the values reported in the paper.