Inertial Measurement Systems (IMS) allow the position calculation of moving objects without requiring outside information. For years the inertial 3-D coordinate measuring technique has been subject to intense research in geodesy and autonomous navigation of land-, water-and airborne vehicles. Because of these areas of application inertially-based systems have been designed for long term measuring only. Here we discuss the requirements that are imposed on inertial sensors in order for them to be used for the calculation of positions of robots. The use of modern sensor technology, combined with strategies for error correction, can result in substantial advantages when calculating robot positions independently from load and environment.
