A novel inclinometer exploiting magnetic fluids and an IR readout strategy

This paper deals with the prototyping and a preliminary characterization of a novel inclinometer exploiting magnetic fluids and an optical readout strategy. The proposed inclinometer consists of a 5 mm diameter glass pipe containing a ferrofluid drop, a permanent magnet to generate a retaining force on the ferrofluidic drop and an infrared (IR) readout strategy to detect the ferrofluid position inside the pipe. The latter is correlated to the glass pipe tilt. The main advantages of the sensor proposed, with respect to previous devices already available in the literature, consist in the use of a permanent magnet to control the ferrofluid mass position and the adopted IR readout strategy, which produce a meaningful reduction of the power consumption, as respect to systems using an inductive readout strategy and the active control of the inertial mass. Features obtained by the experimental characterization of the prototype developed encourages the use of the sensing methodology proposed and the development of devices exploiting the sensing approach above mentioned.