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A roll-free tilt sensor

Objective



The conventional spirit level has been developed with the use of modern materials and sensor technology to offer a measure of tilt control for a large variety of civil, marine and military engineering scenarios. These include tilt sensbrs for remote controlled devices such as boring equipment Current tilt sensors have one major disadvantage in that they are designed to operate in a fixed vertical plane. Any rolling about their cross axes leads to measurement errors. The application of tilt sensors is therefore extremely limited to the monitoring of structures/devices which move principally along a single axis. Multi-axis monitoring of structure orientation is also undertaken by the use of gyroscopes, particularly within the aerospace sector. These are expensive and there is a continuing drive to develop low cost gyroscope systems or alternative, cheaper approaches. This project will seek to develop a roll-free tilt sensor by adapting the current principle based on the conventional spirit level. Careful design of the sensor geometry will allow accurate measurements of tilt independent from the cross roll attitude of the sensor. The progress of this fundamental research work will be influenced by the various selected test applications for the sensor, including mechanical moles, marine and aerospace systems. The following objectives are relevant to these sectors; Research and development of sensor design, materials and manufacture to allow high sensitivity at low cost, while reducing component size. Research and development of algorithms and signal processing to ailow coordination of multiple tilt sensors for a number of applications. Research and dev of the tilt sensor as an alternative to gravity erecting gyroscopes The realisation of a low-cost, roll-free tiit sensor will be a major technological advance, and will extend the availability of accurate tilt-measurement to new application scenarios. For instance, the pitching motion of a ship could be measured without the complications caused by the rolling motion. In addition, the sensor will provide a viable, low-cost alternative to gyroscope technology.

Call for proposal

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Coordinator

Tilt Measurement Ltd.
EU contribution
No data
Address
London Road
SG7 6NG Baldock
United Kingdom

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Total cost
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