Accelerometers are increasingly present in various technical devices, because of their proceeding size reduction.
This paper determines the attributes of a digital, 3-axis accelerometer of STMicroelectronics. The device is used for the measurement of the vector of gravity. Thus, it will be possible to identify the normal vector of the printed circuit accelerometer board in space.
The measured data is input for the ATmega8 USB-Device. It calculates both angular-degrees of freedom for the (x-y)-plane of the sensor.
The ATmega8 offers three different PWM-outputchannels. Two of them are used to output the PWM-signal. They are used to actuate two servo-motors. These are the two actuators for a small mechanical demonstrator-setup, which represents a plane in space. Real-time motion data of the accelerometer is transmitted to the mechanical construction.
A communication is feasible between the ATmega8 USB-Device and a PC. Therefore the range of functions can be increased. Functions like turning on/off the movements as well as a graphical display of the normal vector are implemented in Matlab.

Keywords: accelerometer, real-time-processing, servo-motor

December 15, 2010