Calibration of Drone Systems
Keeping a drone in stable flight is not easy, it is the result of a range of onboard sensors and systems that measure what the drone is doing at any given time. This information is fed to the flight controller. The flight controller takes in information from all of the aircraft's systems and analyses what changes need to be made, and then ouputs the instructions to the relevant parts of the drone. It does this by making small changes to the speeds of the motors to correct for any changes. Some of these drone sensors are listed below
Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
Magnetometers Altimeter Obstacle avoidance sensors Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) |
This unit consists of gyroscopes that measure yaw, and accelerometers which measure movement in a straight line such as pitching or rolling. They can also detect how fast the aircraft is moving in that direction.
This is the compass of a drone and allows it to keep track of the rotation of the drone in relation to the Earths magnetic field. This allows it to determine its heading This sensor has a barometric sensor in them, this sensor measures air pressure. As the drone rises in the air the air presssure decreases, by tracking this decrease it can tell how high it is. Therefore it can control how much the drone climbs or descends. These sensors are ultrasonic, sending out sound waves and measuring the time it takes for that wave to bounce back to the drone, in this way it works in the same way that bats navigate. These sensors assist in ensuring the drones do not hit obstacles and in landing so it knows when it is close to the ground and when it has landed. More commonly known as GPS, GNSS is a way of using satellites to determine the location of the drone on the surface of the Earth. In order to have accurate tracking often more than 12 satellites are used. GNSS is used for all automated flight operations. |
Drone System Calibration
Drone systems can only accurately provide information to the flight controller if they are properly calibrated. All drone systems have built in procedures in which you can calibrate them. The Robomaster TT drone however is much simpler in it's design, and does not contain many of the sensors stated above, instead relying on less sophisticated sensors. Therefore it can be more difficult to accurately control the drone in automated or coded flight.
In this task you are going to design a series of tests to determine the accuracy of the onboard systems on the Robomaster TT drone. You will be looking at determining the accuracy of pitch, roll, climb, descend and yaw. You will conduct these tests several times each with your drone, collecting enough data to be confident of the error associated with each measurement, Excel will be useful in this task. Once that error for each measurment is recorded you should be able to correct for it in any coded flight.
Your calibration of the drone measurements will be tested by having the drone fly a course, or series of moves, that will be unknown until the day of the test. The results of the calibration will need to be used to fly the course as accurately as possible without your intervention
In this task you are going to design a series of tests to determine the accuracy of the onboard systems on the Robomaster TT drone. You will be looking at determining the accuracy of pitch, roll, climb, descend and yaw. You will conduct these tests several times each with your drone, collecting enough data to be confident of the error associated with each measurement, Excel will be useful in this task. Once that error for each measurment is recorded you should be able to correct for it in any coded flight.
Your calibration of the drone measurements will be tested by having the drone fly a course, or series of moves, that will be unknown until the day of the test. The results of the calibration will need to be used to fly the course as accurately as possible without your intervention