Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!smithc
From: smithc@motcid.UUCP (Chris Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: ideas for inclination sensors
Summary: Bounced mail
Message-ID: <4540@indigo.UUCP>
Date: 18 Oct 90 13:46:25 GMT
References: <3717@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
Lines: 33


Tried to e-mail...oh well.

In article <3717@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> you write:
>robots must do is climb an inclinated plane.  Thus, I'm soliciting
>all of you robot hackers for ideas on inclination sensors.
>
>That's about as far as we got before the ideas got pretty random.  Any
>suggestions?  I'd be particularly interested in a low-cost,
>commercially-available device (wouldn't we all?), although anything
>reasonably easy to construct would be wonderful.

Disclaimer: I'm a software engineer.

With that out of the way, here's my suggestion:
Could you use an artificial horizon from an airplane.  It seems to me
that some units would provide encoded readings for auto-pilots, the
parts should be available "off the shelf", and they should also provide
inclination in two dimensions, giving you the ability to determine the
overall attitude of the platform rather than just front/back inclination.
I have no idea what the cost of such a unit is, but it could save you
development time.
Just an idea.
-- 
o-------------------------------------------------------------------------o
o Chris Smith @ Motorola Inc. uunet!motcid!smithc                         o
o "Our great computers fill these hallowed halls..." - N. Peart           o
o---------------------My thoughts, not my employer's----------------------o
-- 
o-------------------------------------------------------------------------o
o Chris Smith @ Motorola Inc. uunet!motcid!smithc                         o
o "Our great computers fill these hallowed halls..."                      o
o---------------------My thoughts, not my employer's----------------------o