Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 27;22(15):5605.
doi: 10.3390/s22155605.

A Novel Wireless Low-Cost Inclinometer Made from Combining the Measurements of Multiple MEMS Gyroscopes and Accelerometers

Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl  1 , Mahyad Komary  1 , Ahmad Alahmad  1 , José Antonio Lozano-Galant  2 , Gonzalo Ramos  1 , Jose Turmo  1
Affiliations

A Novel Wireless Low-Cost Inclinometer Made from Combining the Measurements of Multiple MEMS Gyroscopes and Accelerometers

Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Structural damage detection using inclinometers is getting wide attention from researchers. However, the high price of inclinometers limits this system to unique structures with a relatively high structural health monitoring (SHM) budget. This paper presents a novel low-cost inclinometer, the low-cost adaptable reliable angle-meter (LARA), which combines five gyroscopes and five accelerometers to measure inclination. LARA incorporates Internet of Things (IoT)-based microcontroller technology enabling wireless data streaming and free commercial software for data acquisition. This paper investigates the accuracy, resolution, Allan variance and standard deviation of LARA produced with a different number of combined circuits, including an accelerometer and a gyroscope. To validate the accuracy and resolution of the developed device, its results are compared with those obtained by numerical slope calculations and a commercial inclinometer (HI-INC) in laboratory conditions. The results of a load test experiment on a simple beam model show the high accuracy of LARA (0.003 degrees). The affordability and high accuracy of LARA make it applicable for structural damage detection on bridges using inclinometers.

Keywords: Allan variance; NodeMCU; influence line measurement; low-cost sensors; noise reduction; structural health monitoring.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) HI-INC biaxial inclinometer, (b) inclination streaming over X axis and (c) sampling frequency rate.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of LARA: (a) the produced product, (b) the blueprint of the designed PCB, (c) the Fritzing sketch of the system, and (d) the NODE MCU microcontroller.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of LARA: (a) the produced product, (b) the blueprint of the designed PCB, (c) the Fritzing sketch of the system, and (d) the NODE MCU microcontroller.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The required steps of real-time wireless inclination acquisition using the LARA inclinometer.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Representation of the noise ratio of a single and up to five combined inclinometers using (a) standard deviation and (b) noise density in the frequency-domain.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Representation of the noise ratio of a single and up to five combined inclinometers using (a) standard deviation and (b) noise density in the frequency-domain.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Quantifying the noise progress of various inclinometer combinations in the time domain using (a) Allan variance and (b) Allan deviation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Test setup intended for comparing inclination estimation of LARA with HI-INC.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Estimated measured inclination difference for a different number of combined inclinometers from HI-INC estimations. One sensor (a), two sensors (b), three sensors (c), and four sensors (d).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Load test of a beam model: (a) test setup, (b) load test, and (c) sketch of the load test.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Support slope of a simply supported beam under a point load located on various spots.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Price comparison of LARA with traditional commercial inclinometers with a resolution of 0.003 degrees.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kaloop M.R., Eldiasty M., Hu J.W. Safety and reliability evaluations of bridge behaviors under ambient truck loads through structural health monitoring and identification model approaches. Measurement. 2022;187:110234. doi: 10.1016/j.measurement.2021.110234. - DOI
    1. Komarizadehasl S., Mobaraki B., Ma H., Lozano-Galant J.-A., Turmo J. Development of a Low-Cost System for the Accurate Measurement of Structural Vibrations. Sensors. 2021;21:6191. doi: 10.3390/s21186191. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Komarizadehasl S., Mobaraki B., Ma H., Lozano-Galant J.-A., Turmo J. Low-Cost Sensors Accuracy Study and Enhancement Strategy. Appl. Sci. 2022;12:3186. doi: 10.3390/app12063186. - DOI
    1. Proske D. Fatalities due to bridge collapse. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.-Bridge Eng. 2020;173:1–24. doi: 10.1680/jbren.20.00001. - DOI
    1. Farré-Checa J., Komarizadehasl S., Ma H., Lozano-Galant J.A., Turmo J. Direct simulation of the tensioning process of cable-stayed bridge cantilever construction. Autom. Constr. 2022;137:104197. doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104197. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources