Accelerometer vs Tilt Sensor?

[treborz]

I am interested in purchasing a good sensor for advising the RN-1 program that the robot has fallen, and in which direction, so that appropriate recovery instructions can be given.

Is there a difference in an accelerometer vs a tilt sensor?
If so, which one should I purchase?

Please, I would appreciate the name and manufacturer's model number if available.

Thank you,

Robert

[davidalecmcinnes]

I have fitted a sparkfun 3 axis accelerometer MMA7260Q. It runs on 3.3V but because it's such low power you can use a potential divider from the 5V rail (3x330R resistors). This can give you an analog angular position on all 3 axes for which you can look for threshold values on the AtoD inputs to determine if he's fallen. It's also possible to tell when someone picks him up as the Z axis changes. It might be possible to use it in stabilisation, maybe someones had a go at that.

From what I understand of the tilt sensors they provide a digital output so they can be tested for on the input ports and the appropriate move executed.

Hope that helps