Can I use accelerometer to measure movement of a robotic arm? Is it possible to measure distance of robotic arm with respect to earth's surface and also change in distance when it moves?

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Can I use accelerometer to measure movement of a robotic arm? Is it possible to measure distance of robotic arm with respect to earth's surface and also change in distance when it moves?

580 Views
sachinmunjpara
Contributor I

Hi

I want to know whether accelerometer can measure distance from earth's surface or not. If yes then how to measure it as these accelerometers gives just tilt and g information. also if not then there is any other solution from freescale which I can use for this purpose?

0 Kudos
1 Reply

311 Views
Joshevelle
Senior Contributor I

Hello Sachin,

Thanks for using our community. Please notice that accelerometers can only sense acceleration, you could approximate velocity and/or position by integrating the acceleration.  I'd recommend you the MMA845x, please click in the following URL for detailed information:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MMA8451Q

I would rather recommend you another solution like IR or ultrasound. Other way might be to have a "zero point" or a known position, then calculate the steps required to take the arm from the known position to ground (if stepper motors are being used).

Have fun!

Josh

0 Kudos