Nowadays, with the development of chips, artificial intelligence, and big data technology, drones have begun to become intelligent, terminal, and clustered. A large number of professionals in automation, mechanical electronics, information engineering, microelectronics and other fields have invested in drone research and development. In a few years, drones have flown from military applications far away from people’s sight to ordinary people’s homes. It is undeniable that the development of flight control technology has been the biggest driving force for the transformation of drones in this decade.
Flight control is the abbreviation of flight control system, which can be regarded as the brain of the aircraft. The flight control system is mainly used for flight attitude control and navigation. For flight control, it is necessary to understand the current status of the aircraft, such as three-dimensional position, three-dimensional velocity, three-dimensional acceleration, three-axis angle, three-axis angular velocity, etc. There are 15 states in total. The current flight control system uses an IMU, also called an inertial measurement unit, which consists of a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a three-axis gyroscope. axis geomagnetic sensor and barometer. So what are three-axis gyroscopes, three-axis accelerometers, three-axis geomagnetic sensors, and barometers? What role do they play in an aircraft? What are the three axes?
The three axes of the three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, and three-axis geomagnetic sensor refer to the vertical up and down directions of the aircraft’s left and right, front and rear directions, and are generally represented by XYZ. The left and right directions in the aircraft are called roll, the forward and backward directions in the aircraft are called pitch, and the vertical direction is the Z-axis. It’s hard to stand on the ground when the gyroscope isn’t spinning. Only when it rotates does it stand on the ground. This is the gyroscopic effect. Based on the gyroscopic effect, smart people invented the gyroscope. The earliest gyroscopes were high-speed rotating gyroscopes fixed on a frame through three flexible axes. No matter how the outer frame rotates, the high-speed rotating gyroscope in the middle always maintains the same posture. Data such as the rotation angle of the outer frame can be calculated through sensors on three axes.
Due to its higher cost and complex mechanical structure, it has been replaced by electronic gyroscopes. The advantages of electronic gyroscopes are low cost, small size, light weight, only a few grams, and their stability and accuracy are higher than mechanical gyroscopes. At this point you will understand the role of gyroscopes in flight control. It is used to measure the inclination angle of the three XYZ axes.
So what does a three-axis accelerometer do? As mentioned just now, a three-axis gyroscope has three axes: XYZ. Now it goes without saying that a three-axis accelerometer has three axes: XYZ. When we start driving, we feel a push behind us. This thrust is acceleration. Acceleration is the ratio of the change in velocity to the time at which that change occurs. It is a physical quantity that describes the speed of change of an object. Meters to the power per second. For example, when a car comes to a stop, its acceleration is 0. After starting, it takes 10 seconds to go from 0 meters per second to 10 meters per second. This is the acceleration of the car. If the car is traveling at 10 meters per second, its acceleration is 0. Likewise, if it slows down for 10 seconds, from 10 meters per second to 5 meters per second, its acceleration is negative. The three-axis accelerometer is used to measure the acceleration of the XYZ three axes of the aircraft.
When we travel every day, we find our direction based on landmarks or memories. A geomagnetic sensor is a geomagnetic sensor, also known as an electronic compass. It allows the aircraft to know its flight direction, nose direction, and find the mission and return location. A barometer is used to measure the atmospheric pressure at your current location. As we all know, the higher the altitude, the lower the air pressure. This is why people experience altitude sickness after reaching a plateau. A barometer obtains the current altitude by measuring the pressure at different locations and calculating the pressure difference. This is the entire IMU inertial measurement unit. Its role in the aircraft is to sense changes in the attitude of the aircraft, such as whether the aircraft is currently leaning forward or tilting left and right. What role does the most basic attitude data in flight, such as nose orientation, altitude, etc. play in controlling it?
The most basic function of the flight control is to control the balance of the aircraft when flying in the air. It measures the balance through the IMU, senses the current tilt angle data of the aircraft, and compiles it into an electronic signal through a compiler. The signal is transmitted to the microcontroller inside the flight control through the new time of the signal. The microcontroller takes care of the calculations. It calculates the compensation direction and angle based on the current data of the aircraft, and then compiles the compensation data into electronic signals and transmits them to the steering gear or motor. The motor or steering gear is executing the instruction and completing the compensation action. Then the sensor senses that the aircraft is stable and sends real-time data to the microcontroller again. The microcontroller will stop compensating the signal and form a loop. Most flight controls basically have a 10HZ internal loop, which refreshes 10 times per second.
This is the most basic functional application of IMU in the flight control system. Without this feature, once tilted at a certain angle, the aircraft would quickly lose balance and cause a crash.
Ericco’s MEMS IMUs ER-MIMU-03 and ER-MIMU-04, ER-MIMU-07 and ER-MIMU-08 have built-in high-precision advanced MEMS gyroscopes and high-performance accelerometers, which can measure linear acceleration and rotation in three directions. Angular velocity, and obtain the attitude, speed and displacement information of the carrier through analysis. They are designed for high-performance applications in inertial navigation equipment such as UAV flight control. Provides excellent stability over a temperature range of –45° C to 80° C. An advanced gyro sensor design suppresses the linear acceleration effects of shock and vibration, making it possible for the ER-MIMU-04, ER-MIMU-07 and ER-MIMU-08 to operate in harsh environments.
In addition to being used in drones, ERICCO’s MEMS products are also becoming more and more popular in oil drilling, mining and other application markets. MEMS technology is developing into a huge industry. Just as the microelectronics industry and computer industry have brought tremendous changes to mankind in the past 20 years, MEMS has also given birth to a profound technological change and has had a new round of impact on human society.
Read the reference:https://www.ericcointernational.com/inertial-measurement-units
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