Problem Statement
Our goal is to develop a lightweight gimbal and camera that can be mounted on cheaper drones that cannot accommodate larger loads of larger gimbal and imaging systems. We aim to build a prototype three-axis gimbal and imaging system that weighs under 350 grams and costs less than $200.
Motor Control System:
Inertial Mass Unit (IMU)
- Combination of a gyroscope and accelerometer
- Measures angular postion data in yaw, pitch and roll
Motor controller
- Reads angular position data from an IMU that informs the controller of the changing position of the body that the drone is attached to.
- Sends PWM signal to drive motors into a position to offset movement
Servo Motors
- On board encoder allows servos to rotate to a set position
- Each corrects for an axis (yaw, pitch or roll)
Position Control Algorithm
- After IMU has stabilized, it records the yaw position
- It sets the motor postion to 90 degrees (the midpoint)
- Reads yaw, pitch and roll from the IMU using Jeff Rowberg’s MPU-6050 library
- Writes the position to the servos: (90) – the measured angle + the offset
Imaging System:
Pi Camera:
- Capable of taking still photos at 8MP or taking 1080p (at 30 frames a second)
Raspberry Pi Zero:
- Lightweight and compact, the microprocessor accesses the camera and stores the files on an attached micro SD card