Hello all,
I want to collect and record the slope of walkways with an accuracy within .1 degrees. I am new to robotics and am wondering, in general, what kind of sensor, microcontroller, and other electronics I will need to collect and store this data. I’d like to be able to view this data on my computer and transfer it to something like excel, if possible.
thanks,
victorvegetable
You can use a three axis accelerometer with high accuracy. Note that accelerometers read the direction of gravity, so to get the angle of the incline, you would need a secondary device such as a larger flat surface (to place on the incline). You would then move the sensor up the incline and record values at all times on a microcontroller or computer. The one issue is to get an accurate location of the sensor; this can be done using an encoder or variety of distance sensors. GPS would likely not be very accurate for small distances.
robotshop.com/en/sensors-accelerometers.html
robotshop.com/en/microcontrollers.html
Based on what you wrote, something which can connect directly to a computer may be best:
robotshop.com/en/phidgetspat … meter.html
There is quite a bit of sample code available, though none really output directly to EXCEL.
