DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A LIGHTWEIGHT DIGITAL SURVEYORS WHEEL
The surveyor's wheel is a device used to measure distances. It’s made up of a single wheel attached to a handle pushed or pulled along by a person walking with an iron rim to provide strength and a device to read the distance travelled mounted either near the hub of the wheel or at the top of the handle. In this paper, a Digital Surveyors wheel was designed and constructed using a light-weight material (plastic), a 9V Battery as power source, transistors, CMOS ICs and other components. The selection of these components has resulted in the generation of a reliable Pulse Width Modulated wave that is been decoded by a Decade counter into a Seven segment common cathode display. The Wheel will be used in earmarking an area for surveys of number of household, number of refuse dumpsites or number of solar panels within a specified area where tape measurement will be difficult. Test results showing the performance of major components indicates a good level of efficiency, also test results comparing measurements between Measuring Tape and Digital Surveyors wheel shows a high level of accuracy with percentage Errors of less than 2 % for long distance measurements ( ≥ 5 m), and up to 10% for short distances (< 5 m); caused by design limitations.
Authors : A. Alkasim, T.N. Ibrahim and A.B. Dikko
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 5(2) Date Uploaded : 26th May 2020