IMU Technology
IMU's have angular and linear accelerometers (for changes in position). Angular accelerometers measure how the vehicle is rotating in space. Generally, there's at least one sensor for each of the three axes: pitch (nose up and down), yaw (nose left and right) and roll (clockwise or counterclockwise from the cockpit).
Linear accelerometers measure how the vehicle is moving in space. Since it can move in three axes (up & down, left & right, forward & back), there is a linear accelerometer for each axis.
A computer continually calculates the vehicle's current position. First, for each of six axes, it integrates the sensed amount of acceleration over time to figure the current velocity. Then it integrates the velocity to figure the current position.
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