Any use for an Accelerometer?

VEX V5 Technical Support
1

So my team recently found two accelerometers and we have a bunch of extra analog ports so we were wondering if anybody knows any use for them?

2

In this game, they arent of much use. There’s no application for an accelerometer that would actually help you. One general use would be (if you have a tall, unsturdy robot) to see if the bot is tipping. So, if you have enough room and the desire, then go for it!

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3

The best sensor to see if your robot is tipping are eyes.

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4

accelerometers check for speed, not tips.

5

Accelerometers detect acceleration in 3 axes. If you detect significant motion on the Z (or whatever the up-down axis is), you can reduce that either the robot is being picked up or is falling over. In either case, it would make sense to shut off most motors

6
  1. Deduce, not reduce.
  2. Correct, however stopping motors would only be effective up to a certain point before the bot gets too forward-heavy and flip.
7

An XYZ accelerometer is useful when you need to know the orientation or tilts of an object. For example the angle an arm or leg is oriented relative to the gravitational vector, ^G

8

Yup, this is the most practical use for one that I can think of in VEX. Typically outside of VEX, accelerometers and gyros come packaged together in IMUs (inertial measurement units) which help give very accurate angle aproximation. Accelerometers are noisy but are more constant in the long run while gyroscopes are accurate but tend to drift over time. With good filtering and a combination of the two sets of data, one can get a very accurate angular output. However, VEX has the Z-axis gyroscope independent and that works pretty well http://www.robotc.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Gyro.pdf.

9

The VEX accelerometer is useful for detecting you’ve bumped into something. This can be useful for orienting against a side wall.

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10

I want to see if I can use it to detect collisions with the starting bar or 20 point bar. Might be useful for programming skills.

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11

I have the analog accelerometer working to measure tilts in degrees. Are there any good calibration examples in Robot C?

12

Please do not revive old threads. If this question has truly been unanswered as of yet, make a new thread for it.

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