modelling sensors(IMU) in Gazebo

edit

  <joint name="imu_joint" type="fixed">
    <axis xyz="1 0 0"/> <!-- 0 1 0 -->
    <origin xyz="0 0 0.19"/>
    <parent link="base_link"/>
    <child link="imu_link"/>
  </joint>


<link name="imu_link">
  <inertial>
    <mass value="0.001"/>
    <origin rpy="0 0 0" xyz="0 0 0"/>
    <inertia ixx="0.0001" ixy="0" ixz="0" iyy="0.000001" iyz="0" izz="0.0001"/>
  </inertial>
  <visual>
    <origin rpy="0 0 0" xyz="0 0 0"/>
    <geometry>
      <box size="0.001 0.001 0.001"/>
    </geometry>
  </visual>
  <collision>
    <origin rpy="0 0 0" xyz="0 0 0"/>
    <geometry>
      <box size=".001 .001 .001"/>
    </geometry>
  </collision>
</link>

<gazebo>
  <controller:gazebo_ros_imu name="imu_controller" plugin="libgazebo_ros_imu.so">
    <alwaysOn>true</alwaysOn>
    <updateRate>50.0</updateRate> 
    <bodyName>imu_link</bodyName>
    <topicName>imu_data</topicName>
    <gaussianNoise>2.89e-08</gaussianNoise>
    <xyzOffsets>0 0 0</xyzOffsets>
    <rpyOffsets>0 0 0</rpyOffsets>
    <interface:position name="imu_position"/>
  </controller:gazebo_ros_imu>
</gazebo>

EDIT: This publishes a topic with the type sensor_msgs/Imu. To access the data via rxplot, you could use:

rxplot /imu_data/orientation/x