The Android platform supports three broad categories of sensors:
Motion sensors
These sensors measure acceleration forces and rotational forces along three axes. This category includes accelerometers, gravity sensors, gyroscopes, and rotational vector sensors.
Environmental sensors
These sensors measure various environmental parameters, such as ambient air temperature and pressure, illumination, and humidity. This category includes barometers, photometers, and thermometers.
Position sensors
These sensors measure the physical position of a device. This category includes orientation sensors and magnetometers.
See Android Doc.
You can get of more useful stuff out of this tutorial.
Have look at this sample project.