Troubleshooting Accelerometer Data: Plotting and Interpreting Results

  • Thread starter Thread starter math111
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Accelerometer
AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on troubleshooting accelerometer data collected from a Parallax BS2 mounted on an Amigobot. The user observes erratic data that fluctuates before returning to zero, which contradicts the expected trapezoidal shape of acceleration versus time. The main concern is the noise in the data, which complicates the integration process to calculate the area under the curve. There is confusion regarding the expected behavior of acceleration during movement, specifically how it should transition from zero to a peak and back to zero. The user seeks assistance in understanding and interpreting the noisy data patterns observed during their experiments.
math111
Messages
42
Reaction score
0
What I am trying to do:
I am placing my accelerometer [parallax BS2] ontop of my amigobot. I move the amigobot 1 meter foward with the acceleromter ontop while taking data for x and y direction. I then read the data to my computer and plot it.

Data:
The plot shows the data jumping up and down as time increasing and then it begins to decrease until it hits 0 again.

What I know :
Acceleration in this case should be like a trapezoid going up based on the increase in velocity and then reaching a constsant velocity(accell is 0) and then coming back down to 0 when the amigobot reaches 1 Meter. It would be pretty difficult to integrate the area underneath this because it looks like there is a lot of noise invlove and that could be affecting it.

Issue: I am not sure why my data is jumping up and down. I never used an accelerometer before so this is proving the textbook stuff right but I am not in this situation I am having.

Thank you if anyone can help.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
math111 said:
The plot shows the data jumping up and down as time increasing and then it begins to decrease until it hits 0 again.
So it accelerates, decelerates and ends up at zero acceleration? Isn't that how you move it?

math111 said:
Acceleration in this case should be like a trapezoid going up based on the increase in velocity and then reaching a constsant velocity(accell is 0) and then coming back down to 0
So first it should be 0 and then come down to 0?
 
A.T. said:
So it accelerates, decelerates and ends up at zero acceleration? Isn't that how you move it?


So first it should be 0 and then come down to 0?

Here is my data if it helps. I am just concerned about the up and down. I did an initial without movement and then 3 runs.(from starting at 0 to 1 meter)
 

Attachments

Hello everyone, Consider the problem in which a car is told to travel at 30 km/h for L kilometers and then at 60 km/h for another L kilometers. Next, you are asked to determine the average speed. My question is: although we know that the average speed in this case is the harmonic mean of the two speeds, is it also possible to state that the average speed over this 2L-kilometer stretch can be obtained as a weighted average of the two speeds? Best regards, DaTario
The rope is tied into the person (the load of 200 pounds) and the rope goes up from the person to a fixed pulley and back down to his hands. He hauls the rope to suspend himself in the air. What is the mechanical advantage of the system? The person will indeed only have to lift half of his body weight (roughly 100 pounds) because he now lessened the load by that same amount. This APPEARS to be a 2:1 because he can hold himself with half the force, but my question is: is that mechanical...
Some physics textbook writer told me that Newton's first law applies only on bodies that feel no interactions at all. He said that if a body is on rest or moves in constant velocity, there is no external force acting on it. But I have heard another form of the law that says the net force acting on a body must be zero. This means there is interactions involved after all. So which one is correct?
Back
Top