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WEEK 8 

EXPERIMENT SETUP FOR FINDING THE ANGLE

This experiment was to find the angle of the wheelchair’s seat. There are two ways of performing this experiment. One is the manual way by using the protractor and another one is by using the IMU connected to the controller and the computer. Both ways are to find the angle and at the same time to make comparison between both results.

For the experiment setup, before the experiment begin, first and foremost was to identify the suitable tool that be used to measure the angle of the seat. Next is to identify the right place to make the reference point to find the angle of the seat. For the extra tool that we use for the experiment was the 2 flexible angle iron shaft placed at the side of the wheelchair’s seat as shown below:

Iron shaft that is flexible to moved accordingly with the wheelchair’s seat

The iron shaft was then attached to the side of the wheelchair as one of the shaft attached at the side wheelchair while another shaft attached to the seat which will be moving up and down. That is why the shaft must be flexible as to follow according to the movement of the wheelchair’s seat. The attachment of the shaft to the wheelchair is shown as follow:

Figure shows how the 2 shaft is attached to the wheelchair

After the attachment of the shaft to the wheelchair, the first measurement for this experiment was by manually measured using the protractor. The protractor is placed at the back of the attached shaft at the side of the wheelchair. The purpose of using the protractor was to measure the angle of the seat by the shaft that attached to the seat. The angle of the seat can be shown from the protractor when the seat is moving.  The protractor is placed according to the reference point between the 2 shafts as shown below:

Manual way - Experimental setup by using protractor

Next, another measurement method that we use for this experiment is by using the IMU sensor known as ArduIMU V3. This sensor is  smaller and faster by incorporating the new Invensense MPU-6000 MEMS 3-axis gyro and accelerometer as well the 3-axis I2C magnetometer HMC-5883L which means it has 3 function all in one sensor. This IMU sensor is then attached at the one of the moving shaft as it to shows the angle from that movement of the shaft. Here is the placement of the IMU sensor to detect the angle of the seat:

Placement of the IMU sensor at the movable shaft.

First is to attach the IMU sensor at the movable shaft which attached at the seat then connect the IMU sensor to the Microcontroller (Arduino UNO board). The Arduino board is then connected to the computer to get the result shown from the serial monitor. All of the data that come from the IMU sensor will be shown at the serial monitor from the Arduino IDE. The data is then recorded.

Using IMU - Top view of the experiment setup

Using IMU - Overall setup for the experiment

Above information including the figure are the setup of the experiment for the measurement of angle of the wheelchair's seat. The experiment are still in progress for few days and any improvement are made from time to time.