High-Precision Inertial Sensor Calibration Using Electromagnetic Excitation on an Active Vibration Isolating Bench

High-precision inertial sensors are key instruments in many space science missions and need to be verified on the ground to ensure that they operate reliably in orbit with the designed accuracy. However, for inertial sensors with an accuracy of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-10}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m/s2 or even higher, the traditional calibration method puts forward higher requirements for facilities and environments, and the test precision level is usually limited by seismic noise. In this study, an electromagnetic excitation calibration method of high-precision inertial sensors is proposed and experimentally verified. The active controlled four-wire pendulum provides a low-noise ground test bench. The driving force required for calibration is generated by the noncontact electromagnetic actuator, which drives the bench to move along the calibration direction. A high-precision electrostatic accelerometer and two commercial seismometers are used for experimental testing and comparison. The experimental results show that the proposed method can realize the sensitivity coefficient calibration, amplitude-frequency response calibration, and resolution calibration of the high-voltage levitation electrostatic accelerometer. The uncertainty of the sensitivity calibration is evaluated to be 0.07%, and the resolution is evaluated to be <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.8\times 10^{-10}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m/s2 at 0.5 Hz. This work provides a new high-precision dynamic performance test facility for high-precision inertial sensors.