I'm looking at building a drone myself as a hobby project. Instead of using a ready-made package such as MultiWii for sensor integration, I think it would be the most fun to do this myself. With some programming knowledge and an old Android phone with a gyroscope and accelerometer, I went to work to see how far I can get with this.
I have now reached the point that I can determine the absolute rotation on the basis of the gyroscope (not super accurate) and based on the output of the accelerometer I can determine which of the four corners (where the propellers will be - I'm thinking about a quadcopter) is hanging down so I can upscale the voltage to this propeller until the unit flies straight again.
Now my question to you experts is what else is involved in sensor integration. Can I compare the readings from the gyroscope and accelerometer to make the result more accurate? What is the function of the gyroscope at all if I can also calculate the absolute rotation from the readings of the accelerometer? Are there any other sensors used to keep the drone stable? Am I better off simply using MultiWii?
I have now reached the point that I can determine the absolute rotation on the basis of the gyroscope (not super accurate) and based on the output of the accelerometer I can determine which of the four corners (where the propellers will be - I'm thinking about a quadcopter) is hanging down so I can upscale the voltage to this propeller until the unit flies straight again.
Now my question to you experts is what else is involved in sensor integration. Can I compare the readings from the gyroscope and accelerometer to make the result more accurate? What is the function of the gyroscope at all if I can also calculate the absolute rotation from the readings of the accelerometer? Are there any other sensors used to keep the drone stable? Am I better off simply using MultiWii?