Mindboards

Hello all,

I am interested in buying additional sensors for my NXT, in particular a HiTechnic gyro and/or an acceleration sensor. But I don't want to just re-build what others have done, I also want to understand how the mathematical principles behind work. I have found some books explaining these kind of sensors in great detail, but unfortunately all of these books assume that the reader has a complete mathematical understanding of the topic -- which I don't.

So I am searching now for a book/article/tutorial etc. that explains not only the sensors and how they work, but also the needed mathematics. Does anybody of you have a good recommendation for me?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Kind regards, Matthias

Hello Matthias,

So I am searching now for a book/article/tutorial etc. that explains not only the sensors and how they work, but also the needed mathematics. Does anybody of you have a good recommendation for me?

I doubt that you will find everything in a single article. There are many excellent videos on YouTube that explain math concepts. Of course you have to know a specific math topic to search for. If you could provide a link to a typical sensor article (or post an example of the type of math you want to understand), I might be able to make a recommendation on a related math article -or perhaps even lend some insight on the math involved.

Dave

Hello Dave,

I am interested in acceleration and gyro sensors in particular -- and as said the maths behind them.
So I would like to understand:

1.) how they work,
2.) the maths behind,
3.) some examples how they can be used within a robot,
4.) and again the maths related to their usage

Hope that clarifies my original request a bit...

Kind regards, Matthias

Hi Matthias,
There is a 20 page pdf (available on line) by Texas Instruments called "Accelerometers and How they Work" by Dave Britton.

If you could look up and read that article, it might give a common base for asking and answering questions. What parts of that article need further explanation?

Dave (but not Dave Britton)

Hi,
You may want to take a look at some of the papers on this page. They are a little academic and some or old, but in many respects the cutting edge robotics platform of 10 years or so ago is now available as an NXT...
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~johannb/

Andy