Quadcopter Sensor and filter evaluation
Axel Johansson, David Wallén · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) · 2016
In an electromechanical system hardware and software interoperate to perform a given task. Regardless of the task, it can be hard to know what level of complexity of components and software needed to perform well. Could you save on production costs by using cheaper sensors or is more expensive alternatives from well-known manufacturers needed? Does the control become simpler if you have more expensive sensors or is there always a need for advanced algorithms and filters? In this report a quadcopter controlled by two different sensors and two different filters has been investigated. The two filters that were compered consisted of a simple complementary filter and a more advanced Kalman filter. The quadcopter was used as an empirical test to see how varying amount of disturbances or less exact data from the sensors affect a real system. The results showed that the performance of the different sensors were quite similar, both in the area of raw data, calculated standard deviances and what was visually observable. With the constructed control system, the quadcopter was stabilizing around one axis with an accuracy of ±4° and the cheaper sensor actually recorded a lower standard deviance of the angle (1.624° compared to 1.754° for the more expensive sensor).