editor's blog
Subscribe Now

An Orientation Sensor

We now have a new category in the IMU world: Bosch Sensortec has announced the first of what they call Application-Specific Sensor Nodes, or ASSNs. They have dubbed this particular device an Absolute Orientation Sensor. It looks strikingly like an all-in-one sensor hub, with an accelerometer, a gyro, a magnetometer, and a 32-bit ARM-based microcontroller (source not disclosed).

The difference is that a sensor hub per se leaves the software to be executed on the micro pretty wide open for the user to define. The BNO055, by contrast, is really intended to combine the motion sensors via built-in fusion on the micro so that it looks like a higher-level orientation sensor. It essentially bumps up the level of abstraction, burying the sensors and micro inside something more akin to a black box. Data is communicated pre-computed as quaternions rather than raw.

Power is addressed by allowing a stand-by mode where the gyroscope – always the power hog – can be put to sleep. When the accelerometer detects motion, it can then wake the gyro – which responds in a few nanoseconds – so that it can intercept any rotational motion. This assumes, of course, that any rotation missed during that wake-up is negligible. (Quick math sanity check says that if an object rotates, say, 6 degrees in 10 ns, then that’s 60 degrees in 100 ns or a full rotation in 600 ns… divide by 10 to get 60 ns, multiply by a billion to get 60 s, so that would be 100,000,000 RPM… yeah, not even Washington DC can spin anything that fast…)

So full power is around 11 or 12 mA; in motion-wakeable stand-by it goes down to 150 µA. If you put everything to sleep and wake it through I2C instead, you can get down to the 20-µA range.

You can find more on this device in their release

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Mar 31, 2023
Learn how (and why) the semiconductor industry is moving towards chiplet-enabled multi-die systems in our research piece in MIT's Technology Review Insights. The post An Industry-Wide Look at the Move Toward Multi-Die Systems appeared first on New Horizons for Chip Design....
Mar 31, 2023
The Verisium Debug platform is optimized for scalability, supporting debugging of simulation runs and emulation, where support for loading large source files and handling huge amounts of probe data is a must. Join this free Cadence Training Webinar to learn how to automate yo...
Mar 30, 2023
Are you in desperate need of a program manager to instigate a new project or rescue an existing project that is spiraling out of control?...

featured video

First CXL 2.0 IP Interoperability Demo with Compliance Tests

Sponsored by Synopsys

In this video, Sr. R&D Engineer Rehan Iqbal, will guide you through Synopsys CXL IP passing compliance tests and demonstrating our seamless interoperability with Teladyne LeCroy Z516 Exerciser. This first-of-its-kind interoperability demo is a testament to Synopsys' commitment to delivering reliable IP solutions.

Learn more about Synopsys CXL here

featured chalk talk

EV Charging: Understanding the Basics
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Bel
Have you ever considered what the widespread adoption of electric vehicles will look like? What infrastructure requirements will need to be met? In this episode of Chalk Talk, I chat about all of this and more with Bruce Rose from Bel. We review the basics of EV charging, investigate the charging requirements for both AC and DC chargers, and examine the role that on-board inverters play in electric vehicle charging.
Mar 27, 2023
831 views