What A Linear Position Sensor Can Do | The Communication Blog

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What A Linear Position Sensor Can Do

By Adriana Noton


A linear position sensor provides positioning data to the computer that handles one of many different things in a machine or mechanism. The sensor can work in everything from a machine that manufactures automobile parts to an automobile itself. Though it has many other applications, the sensor works best in a car because it can identify the position of so many things in a car's inner workings.

In a car, there are many parts in the mechanism that require a sensor to send information to the car's computer. This is how the car flashes little lights at you to let you know when certain parts of the car aren't working. These sensors also allow new technologies on luxury cars to work properly. You can't have many of the fancy new features in today's vehicles without them.

Take the example of headlights that turn before you enter a curve. The headlights only know that a curve is coming because of a sensor that tells the car its position on the road and that a turn is coming. The computer can use this information to turn the headlights and anticipate the turn, and it can do that reliably over and over again.

Vehicles with parallel parking features employ this same technology to get the can parked safely. The devices send constant streams of information to the computer to alert it to the position of other cars and the roadside. The vehicle can steer itself while parking of the data that the sensors provide. The process is safe because it receives accurate positioning data.

These same units tell the vehicle the position of its throttle, transmission, brakes, camshaft, and other components. All the mechanical parts in the vehicle talk to the computer in this way. They are small units, and they keep your car on the road just as much as your hands on the steering wheel do. A mechanic has an easier time fixing a car, and a car self-regulates as you drive it.

The safety features also work through the help of these units. They sense when a collision occurs, where it has occurred, and which airbags of safety measures to deploy. The same goes for the locks on the doors, the windows, and the latch on the trunk. Every part is monitored to know what it is doing at all times. Again, this is why the little lights on your dashboard flicker at you from time to time.

Your new vehicle works with the help of a computer, but machines that produce car parts, individual car parts, robotic arms, medical devices, surgical technology, and many other machines use linear positioning sensors to determine how best to function. Medical treatments become safer and more efficient, and the providers can perform more delicate procedures.

These positioning units make many of our modern conveniences a reality, and they most certainly get you from point A to point B on a daily basis. Microelectronics and sensorics make many things we use more functional, more user-friendly, without a large increase in costs to the consumer.




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