Accurate tilt sensing with single linear model

Jiye Qian, Bin Fang, Jin Fu, Weibin Yang, Wei Song, Haibing Zhang, Qing Zhou

Abstract: We aim to sense the tilt of a cylindrical object, which refers to the angle between the central axis of a given cylindrical object and the direction of gravitational acceleration. Since only the pitch angle is sensed, it is a specific case of attitude estimation. In our previous work to accurate tilt sensing, a numerical scheme with three linear numerical models based on a physical model has been proposed. In this paper, we introduce a simpler tilt measurement algorithm using only one linear numerical model based on the same physical model. This algorithm is able to determine accurate tilt angle with equivalent measurement error to our previous work. In the range (0°, 120°), the average error is below 0.1°. Moreover, it simplifies both software and hardware implementation.