CORDIC-based inclination sensing algorithm using three-axis accelerometer-based inertial sensors

In this paper, we present a low complexity and memory-less algorithm for angle calculations of a system using 3-axis accelerometers. Accelerometers have been widely used to determine the inclination or tilt of a system where the net acceleration or force on a system over time is gravity. However, the angle calculations are complicated and most of the work either implementing with look-up tables or simply transmit the data to systems with more powerful computation resources, such as a PC, to calculate the angles. To reduce the computational complexity and release the memory burden, we propose a 2D CORDIC-based algorithm for the inclination or tilt angle calculations so that it is feasible on a low-cost and low power microcontroller in an embedded system.