Whats an accelleromitor?

[fatman]

accelleromitor???

..what is it and what does it do?
and do i need one? how will it help?

limor wrote
"
Accelerometer measures acceleration so the controller gets notified
every time the robot is in motion but not steady motion.. for example
continuous acceleration over a period of say 0.5 second is usually a
bad sign that the robot is falling."

so if after long periods of acceleration (0.5sec) it notifies the controller...what happens now?
does the controller counteract accelleration?

all help appreciated

cheers
fatman

[hivemind]

an accelerometer measures the force of gravity, some of these can measure many times the force of gravity, and thus predict when you are falling, or in the case of a 3 axis acceloremeter can tell when you are tipping in any direction. Say for example you have two sets of code for your robot. The first routine lets your robot get up when it has fallen on its front, the second from its back. Now you can have another routine that can use the accelerometer to detect when to use one of these. Your robot could constantly be checking this to make sure it hasnt fallen over.

You could also use it to measure gravity from small shakes, ie: as a gyro. As long as it can react fast enough it can tell seperate servos to counteract a push that has been applied upon it.

Either way, you do not need it, but it can be a very useful tool and if used properly can help is many routines or sloped movement.

[fatman]

thanks hivemind

so as a newbie gyros (i have them coming) are enough for me at the moment...
as i advance with routines i may look closer at one.

thanks for your input