Abstract

This study presents the development of a tilt measurement unit using a commercial microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometer based detection system. The objective of this study was to design, fabricate and test the tilt measurement unit for the purpose of inclination measurement and monitoring. The commercial MEMS accelerometer, ADXL202E, from Analog Device was chosen as a detection sensor because of its high sensitivity (12.5%/g) which allows the user to use a lower speed counter for PWM decoding while maintaining a high resolution. An interface circuit that provided different configurations to the accelerometer performance was built and studied. Experimental tests were carried out to characterize the device with the full measurement range of 360°angle. The output results showed nonlinear relationship in single axis tilting due to the construction of the sensor. Preliminary test proved that the developed measurement device is capable of measuring tilt in a single axis and recommendations for further research are offered.