AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS

MOTION SENSORS
Engr Haider-e-Karar
Teaching Assistant
Mehran University of Engineering and Technology
Engr Haider-e-Karar

MOTION SENSORS
Motion sensors are special class of transducers (i.e., a device
used to convert one form of energy into other) that are used to
measure the velocity or acceleration of objects
Motion sensors are designed to measure the rate of change of
position, location or displacement of an object that is occurring
If the position of an object is a function of time x(t), then the first
derivative gives the speed of the object, v(t), which is called the
velocity if a direction is also specified

Engr Haider-e-Karar

MOTION SENSORS
If the speed of the object is also changing, then the first
derivative of the speed gives the acceleration. This is also the
second derivative of the position
v(t ) dx(t ) / dt

... ... (1)

a (t ) dv(t ) / dt d 2 x(t ) / dt 2

... ... (2)

Engr Haider-e-Karar

ACCELEROMETER
The primary form of motion sensor is the accelerometer
This device measures the acceleration of an object. In accelerator
we have the sensors that can provide the acceleration, speed,
and velocity and position information
The design of a motion sensor to measure motion is often tailored
to the type of motion that is to be measured

Engr Haider-e-Karar

TYPES OF MOTION
A few types of motion are:
Rectilinear motion: Rectilinear motion meansmotionalong a straight line
Angular Motion: The sensors designed to measure only rotation about some
axis such as the angular motion of the shaft of the motor. Such devices cannot
be used to measure the physical displacement of whole shaft, but only its
rotation.
Vibration Motion:
Shock: A special type of acceleration occurs when an object that may be in
uniform motion or modestly accelerating is suddenly brought to rest, as in a
collision
Engr Haider-e-Karar

ACCELEROMETER PRINCIPLE
The design of an accelerometer is based on Newton's law of mass
acceleration and Hooke's law of spring action.
The basic structure is as shown in the Fig.

Basic Structure of Accelerometer

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Basic Structure of Accelerometer

The
accelerometer is fastened to the body undergoing

acceleration. According to Newton's law, if mass m is undergoing

acceleration a, exerts a force on a mass given by

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Accelerometer Principles
This
force is opposed by the restraining effect of a spring. Let

spring constant be k. If mass m is displaced from its original

position by a distance x, then according to Hooke's law, the
force exerted is given by

In steady state:

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Accelerometer Principles

Above equation allows the measurement of acceleration to be

reduced to a measurement of spring extension (linear
displacement) because

The above equation represents second order system. So in such

systems if damping is not provided, the output of the
accelerometer undergo non-decaying sustained oscillations
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Control system Review:

Mass spring damper system

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Playing with Matlab

Plot undamped response and underdamped response in
Matlab to see effect of damper on system response

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Non-decaying Sustained Oscillations

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Accelerometer Principles
Hence
to overcome this generally a damper is used in the system which

exerts a force proportional to the velocity of mass. The damping force is

given by
We can write,
Where v is velocity of mass
Thus modified equation is given by
+
The mass that coverts acceleration to spring displacement is called test
mass or seismic mass
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Decaying Oscillation with Damper

Engr Haider-e-Karar

TYPES OF ACCLEROMETER
So far, we studied that the measurement of acceleration reduces
to the measurement of linear displacement
So we can have different types of accelerometers based on the
different displacement measuring techniques. Based on the type
of spring element and the form of damping used, there are
number of types of accelerometer
1. Potentiometric type
2. LVDT type
3. Piezoelectric type
4. Variable Reluctance
Engr Haider-e-Karar

1. Potentiometric Type
It is simplest form of accelerometer. The basic structure
of potentiometric accelerometer is shown as:

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Working Principle
The seismic mass is attached to the wiper arm of the
potentiometer. The change in position of mass relative
to accelerometer case is converted directly into change
in resistance at the output terminals
By using different signal conditioning circuits, change in
resistance can be converted into corresponding voltage
or current signal
In this type of accelerometer, damping is provided by
either filling the space inside
the case with a viscous
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Different signal conditioning circuit

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Vo

Limitations
In spite of being simple in construction, the use of the
potentiometric accelerometer is limited
Firstly its natural frequency is very less and it is of the
order of 30 Hz. Hence the application of the
accelerometer is limited to very low frequency vibration
Secondly number of signal conditioning systems are
required to convert the variation of resistance into
either voltage or current signal. Then lastly the sliding
contacts in the system introduce errors in the output
progressively
Engr Haider-e-Karar

LINEAR VARIABLE DIFFERENTIAL

TRANSFORMER (LVDT)
What is Linear Displacement Measurement
Linear displacement is movement in one direction along a
single axis
A position or linear displacement sensor is a device whose
output signal represents the distance an object has traveled
from a reference point
A displacement measurement also indicates the direction of
motion

Engr Haider-e-Karar

LINEAR VARIABLE DIFFERENTIAL

TRANSFORMER (LVDT)
In LVDT accelerometer, the
core of LVDT itself acts as a
seismic mass
The core is attached to two
spring steel one at top and
other at bottom with the
help of rods as shown

Engr Haider-e-Karar

LVDT
The spring steels are attached to the case firmly. With
the help of this arrangement null position of the core of
LVDT is maintained. Both the spring steel provide
necessary spring action
The coil assembly consists of three coils of wire wound.
A core of permeable material can slide freely through
the center
The inner coil is the primary, which is excited by an AC
source as shown. Magnetic
flux produced by the
Engr Haider-e-Karar

LVDT
An LVDT measures displacement by associating a
specific signal value for any given position of the core
The position of the core determines how tightly the
signal of the primary coil is coupled to each of the
secondary coils. The two secondary coils are seriesopposed, which means wound in series but in opposite
directions
This results in the two signals on each secondary being
180 degree out of phase. Therefore phase of the output
signal determines direction and its amplitude, distance
Engr Haider-e-Karar

LVDT working
Youtube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=anCnrtjNLQM

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Source:
http://www.oocities.org/incohub/lvdt.
f

Core @ Center
When the core is centered perfectly between both
secondaries and the primary
Here, the voltage induced
in each secondary is equal
in amplitude and 180 deg
out of phase. Thus the
LVDT output (for the
series-opposed connection
shown in this case) is zero
because the voltages
cancel each other

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Core @ Left
Displacing the core to the left causes the first secondary
to be more strongly coupled to the primary than the
second secondary

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Core @ Right
Likewise, displacing the core to the right causes the
second secondary to be more strongly coupled to the
primary than the first secondary

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Advantages and Limitations

The main advantage of the LVDT transducer over other types of
displacement transducer is the high degree of robustness.
Because there is no physical contact across the sensing
element, there is no wear in the sensing element
As compared to the potentiometric type accelerometer, the
natural frequency of LVDT accelerometer is higher and it is
around 80Hz
It offers lower resistance to the motion, so the resolution is
better compared with the potentiometric type accelerometer
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Advantages and Limitations

No errors due to the moving contacts as there are no
sliding contacts in the instrument.
Due to low natural frequency, the application is again
limited to steady state acceleration or low frequency
vibration measurements.

Engr Haider-e-Karar

LVDT Signal Conditioners

LVDT signal conditioners generate a sinusoidal signal as an
excitation source for the primary coil. This signal is typically
between 50 Hz and 25 kHz
The carrier frequency is generally selected to be at least 10
times greater than the highest expected frequency of the core
motion
The signal conditioning circuitry synchronously demodulates
the secondary output signal with the same primary excitation
source
Engr Haider-e-Karar

LVDT Signal Conditioners

The resulting DC voltage is proportional to core
displacement. The polarity of the DC voltage indicates
whether the displacement is toward or away from the
first secondary (displacement left or right).

Engr Haider-e-Karar

3. Piezoelectric Accelerometer
Piezoelectric accelerometer is based on property of
certain crystals that when is subjected to stress, voltage
is generated across the crystal
The basic structure of piezoelectric
accelerometer is as shown in fig.

Engr Haider-e-Karar

Working
When accelerometer is subjected to an acceleration, the
seismic mass stresses the crystal by a force equal to F=ma
This generates voltage across crystal which is directly
proportional to the acceleration
The main advantage of the piezoelectric accelerometer is that
the crystal acts as a spring and damper in the instrument
The natural frequency of the crystal is very high, hence it can
be used for very high frequency vibration and shock
measurement.
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Advantages & Disadvantages

The disadvantage of such accelerometer is that the output
voltage must be measured with a instrument having very high
impedance to avoid loading effect as the electrical impedance of
the piezoelectric crystal is very high
Advantages
1.
2.
3.
4.

Small size and a small weight

High output impedance
High sensitivity
High frequency response (10 Hz to 50 kHz)

Disadvantages
1. Unsuitable for applications where the input frequency is lower than 10 Hz
2. Sensitive to temperature changes.
Engr Haider-e-Karar

Variable Reluctance
This accelerometer falls in the same general category as the
LVDT in that an inductive principle is employed
Here, the test mass is usually a permanent magnet. The
measurement is made from the voltage induced in the
surrounding coil as the magnetic mass moves under the
influence of acceleration
This accelerometer is used in vibration and shock study only,
because it has an output only when the mass is in motion. Its
natural frequency is less than 100Hz
Engr Haider-e-Karar

REFERENCES
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3638/en/
Electronic Measurements and Instrumentation

By A.V.Bakshi U.A.Bakshi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anCnrtjNLQM
Book provided to you

Engr Haider-e-Karar

END OF LECTURE

Engr Haider-e-Karar