Methods for determining the direction of rotation of rotating bodies

A method for determining a direction of rotation of a rotating body about an axis of rotation, which comprises the steps of:

• measuring two acceleration signals x and y with at least one acceleration sensor resulting in measured acceleration signals x and y, the two acceleration signals x and y being at a 90 degree angle to each other and oriented not parallel to the axis of rotation, and both a centrifugal acceleration generated by a circular movement and a gravitational acceleration g being taken into account;
• differentiating mathematically the measured acceleration signals x and y resulting in a differentiated x acceleration signal and a differentiated y acceleration signal;
• differentiating a further time the differentiated y acceleration signal resulting in a further differentiated y acceleration signal;
• and
• correlating the further differentiated y acceleration signal with the differentiated x acceleration signal for obtaining a correlation function.

A method for determining a direction of rotation of a rotating body about an axis of rotation, which comprises the steps of:

• measuring two acceleration signals x and y with at least one acceleration sensor resulting in measured acceleration signals x and y, the two acceleration signals x and y being at a 90 degree angle to each other and oriented not parallel to the axis of rotation, and both a centrifugal acceleration generated by a circular movement and a gravitational acceleration g being taken into account;
• differentiating mathematically the measured acceleration signals x and y resulting in a differentiated x acceleration signal and a differentiated y acceleration signal;
• differentiating a further time the differentiated x acceleration signal resulting in a further differentiated x acceleration signal;
• and
• correlating the further differentiated x acceleration signal with the differentiated y acceleration signal for obtaining a correlation function.