IMU Insights | Sumble

What is IMU?

An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the magnetic field surrounding the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers. IMUs are commonly used in navigation systems, robotics, aerospace, and consumer electronics for applications such as self-balancing, drone stabilization, activity tracking, and virtual reality.

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What other technologies are related to IMU?

IMU Competitor Technologies

LiDAR

LiDAR provides alternative spatial awareness and mapping capabilities, competing with IMUs for localization and navigation, especially when high-resolution 3D data is needed.

mentioned alongside IMU in 5% (870) of relevant job posts

Camera

Cameras, especially stereo or visual odometry systems, offer alternative methods for estimating motion and position, competing with IMUs for tasks like visual SLAM.

mentioned alongside IMU in 9% (379) of relevant job posts

star trackers

Star trackers determine attitude by measuring the positions of stars. It can be used instead of IMUs.

mentioned alongside IMU in 29% (53) of relevant job posts

Radar

Radar provides alternative spatial awareness and mapping capabilities, competing with IMUs for localization and navigation, especially in poor visibility environments.

mentioned alongside IMU in 3% (419) of relevant job posts

cameras

Cameras, especially stereo or visual odometry systems, offer alternative methods for estimating motion and position, competing with IMUs for tasks like visual SLAM.

mentioned alongside IMU in 3% (184) of relevant job posts

IMU Complementary Technologies

SLAM

SLAM algorithms often incorporate IMU data to improve accuracy and robustness of the mapping and localization process, making them strongly complementary.

mentioned alongside IMU in 10% (300) of relevant job posts

odometry

IMUs are often fused with odometry (wheel encoders) to improve the accuracy of position estimates.

mentioned alongside IMU in 47% (58) of relevant job posts

GNSS

GNSS (like GPS) provides absolute position estimates, which can be fused with IMU data to correct for drift and improve overall localization accuracy, especially in outdoor environments.

mentioned alongside IMU in 4% (488) of relevant job posts