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9.1: Introduction to Moving-Frame Kinematics

  • Page ID
    50042
    • Franz S. Hover & Michael S. Triantafyllou
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology via MIT OpenCourseWare
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    An understanding of inertial guidance systems for navigation of vehicles and robots requires some background in kinematics. Central in our discussion is the use of multiple reference frames. Such frames surround us in our daily lives:

    • Earth's latitude and longitude
    • Forward/backward motion relative to current position
    • Right/left motion
    • Axes printed on an inertial measurement unit
    • Vehicle-referenced coordinates, e.g., relative to the centroid

    We first describe how to transform vectors through changes in reference frame. Considering differential rotations over differential time elements gives rise to the concept of the rotation vector, which is used in deriving inertial dynamics in a moving body frame.


    This page titled 9.1: Introduction to Moving-Frame Kinematics is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Franz S. Hover & Michael S. Triantafyllou (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.