Performance evaluation of low-cost vibration sensors in Industrial IoT applications

The recent development of low-cost accelerometers, driven by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) revolution, provides an opportunity for their application in precision manufacturing. Sensor data is often of the highest consideration in any precision machining process. While high-cost vibration sensors have traditionally been employed for vibration measurements in industrial manufacturing, the measurement uncertainty affecting the accuracy of low-cost vibration sensors has not been explored and requires performance evaluation. This research focuses on the characterization of measurements from low-cost tri-axial Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers in terms of identifying the parameters that induce uncertainties in measured data. Static and dynamic calibration was conducted on a calibration test bench using a range of frequencies while establishing traceability according to the ISO 16063 series and the IEEE-STD-1293-2018 standards. Moreover, comparison tests were performed by installing the sensors on machine tools for reliability evaluation in terms of digital transmission of recorded data. Both tests further established the relationship between the baseline errors originating from the sensors and their influence on the data obtained during the dynamic performance profile of the machine tools. The outcomes of this research will foresee the viability offered by such low-cost sensors in metrological applications enabling Industry 4.0.