Identification of the ten inertia parameters of a rigid body

A special antisymmetric 4 × 4 matrix form of the equation of motion of a rigid body is proposed. This form depends linearly on the symmetric (4 × 4)-matrix of the Fayet global inertia tensor, containing the ten inertia parameters of a rigid body (the mass, the three coordinates of the centre of mass and the six components of the classical inertia tensor). For identifying the global inertia tensor, an algorithm is proposed which is based on the method of least squares and the method of conjugate gradients and tested using the example of a rigid body, the motion of which is obtained by computer modelling.