Data Capture Functions Supporting the Aceinna Navigation Studio

Capturing, Displaying, and Saving Data Using the Aceinna Navigation Studio

With the following complete:

  1. Serial output-message created and running on the OpenIMU hardware
  2. The message description added to openimu.json
  3. python-openimu installed on your system

you are now ready to collect IMU data.

OpenIMU Server

To capture data using the Aceinna Navigation Studio, the first step is to start the python-based server that will capture the serial data streaming over the COM port. This can be done by sending the following command at a terminal prompt from the python-openimu folder:

python commands.py

This initiates a search for the OpenIMU device on the machine’s COM ports. When detected, the terminal returns a message similar to the following:

ServerConnection_Pre

Server-Connection Message at the Terminal Prompt

Once connected to the IMU type ‘start_server’ to start the server. More instructions on the Python driver are found here

Connect to Aceinna Navigation Studio

To capture and display data on the Aceinna Navigation Studio, open a browser to https://developers.aceinna.com and log in. From the menu on the left, select Devices and Connect. The following will appear if connected properly:

ANS_Connection

Connection to IMU Server

If desired, the packet output rate and other settings can be changed here.

After connecting to the OpenIMU device, the terminal reflects this by displaying the configuration of the unit:

ServerConnection_Post

Server-Connection Message at the Terminal Prompt

Displaying Data

For a live display of data from the device, select the Record menu then click on the Play button. An example capture of the accelerometer data follows:

ANS_AccelerationPlot

Plot of IMU Accelerometer Data

Logging Data

To log data select the Log Control switch. The output file consists of data found in the serial message. In particular the message consists of:

  • Time (in counts and seconds)
  • Accelerometer data (in \([g]\))
  • Rate-Sensor data (in [°/s])
  • Magnetometer data (in \([G]\))
  • Board-Temperature data (in [°C])

The following figure shows the contents of the captured data file, indicating that all selected data are saved as intended.

ANS_OutputDataPlot

IMU Angle Data File