Caterpillar Inc.

Shawn C Passwater

Robert Roy Sychra

Stephen K Phelps

The present invention pertains to an inclination sensor construction that is capable of determining the pitch and roll of a machine or machine implement. Moreover, the present invention may be employed to detect the pitch and roll of a blade of a motor grader or bulldozer. The invention is directed to a method of detecting the native inaccuracy of an inclination sensor and providing compensation values to correct for errors in the sensor output, and to an inclination sensor construction that makes use of such compensation values to produce highly accurate inclination sensor construction outputs, and contemplates the inclusion in the inclination sensor construction of a microprocessor that has stored therein compensation values that are utilized during operation of the inclination sensor construction to correct the native outputs of individual transducers to take into account recognized inaccuracies of such native outputs relative to actual inclination values. Thus, there is provided an inclination sensor construction that has the capability to correct native output values from component transducers with compensating offset values for errors that may be due to misalignment, skewing, and so forth.

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Metamora, IL, United States of America

Shawn C Passwater