System and method for balancing a gimbaled system

A method of balancing a gimbaled system having a gimbal operatively connected with a motor configured to control an angular position and an angular speed of the gimbal, wherein the gimbal has predetermined compensation locations thereon, the method comprising:

• rotating the gimbal through 360 degrees within a gravity field via actuation of the motor;
• sensing motor control current data from the motor when the gimbal is rotating;
• applying a polynomial fit filter to the motor control current data to produce smoothed current data having phase information preserved from the motor control current data;
• determining, from the smoothed current data, an imbalance condition of the gimbal characterized by an imbalance torque and an imbalance angle;
• and
• applying an optimization algorithm to determine an optimized combination of one or more compensating weights disposed at one or more of the predetermined compensation locations, wherein the optimized combination is configured to compensate for the imbalance condition.

A system for balancing a gimbaled system, wherein the gimbaled system includes a gimbal operatively connected with a motor configured to control a rotation of the gimbal, and wherein the gimbal has predetermined compensation locations thereon, the system comprising:

• a tumbling module configured to interface with the motor to tumble the gimbal through a gravity field via actuation of the motor,
• wherein the tumbling comprises rotating the gimbal via actuation of the motor;
• a sensing module configured to sense motor control current data from the motor when the gimbal is tumbling;
• a filter module configured to apply a polynomial fit filter to the motor control current data to produce smoothed current data having phase information preserved from the motor control current data;
• a determining module configured to determine, from the smoothed current data, an imbalance condition of the gimbal characterized by an imbalance torque and an imbalance angle;
• and
• an optimization module configured to apply an optimization algorithm to determine an optimized combination of one or more compensating weights disposed at one or more of the predetermined compensation locations, wherein the optimized combination is configured to compensate for the imbalance condition.