Stairway to Safety: Ramp-Turning Stairs Powered by Arduino-Based Accelerometer-Gyro MPU-6050

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The anticipated Big One is fast-approaching; and being one of the countries lying on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Philippines is considered to be one of the most vulnerable places in the world. Aside from the expected effects of earthquakes, stampedes contribute to more casualties, which happen when panicky people evacuate an establishment during the occurrence of the catastrophe. Stampedes usually happen in stairs. The researcher, therefore, thought of building a prototype of ramp-turning stairs when a ground shaking is detected with the primary purpose of upgrading the stair system by transforming it into a ramp after earthquake detection. The proponent mainly used Accelerometer-Gyro: MPU-6050 to detect the ground shaking, thus limiting the study into being useful only during earthquake evacuation.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental design was used for the study. The researcher mainly used Accelerometer-Gyro: MPU-6050 to detect the ground shaking, while the servo motor SG-5010 was used to make the stairs turn into a ramp. The programming used was the Arduino IDE. The product was tested with varying intensity of ground shaking.

RESULTS

The researcher had assigned a value in which the sensor will recognize ground shaking an earthquake. Through the simulator, the values indicating intensity five were identified. When these values were not reached, the application used in testing only showed the sensor's position. On the other hand, when the values were reached, the application showed that an earthquake had been detected. After the testing, the mean and standard deviation values for the reaction time of the motor were attained for each intensity range respectively: (1) 4.2-5.1: 2.42 s, 0.42 sd;(2) 5.2-6.1: 1.67 s, 0.44 sd; (3) 6.2-7.1: 1.91 s, 0.41 sd; (4) 7.2-8.1: 1.54 s, 0.58 sd.The functionality was tested three times for each intensity. For each trial, proponent was able to record time for the closest values for 5, 6, 7, and 8. This was due to the fact that on the earthquake simulator, one cannot start immediately on the desired intensity value.

DISCUSSIONS

Results show that the product has the capacity to detect an earthquake with intensity 5 and above and automatically turn into a ramp. The size of the product is a concern since it can affect the result. In order to lessen this error, following the standard size and proper angle of inclination should be highly considered.