Motor Control

[bbastnag]

So I am currently in a 5 week LabVIEW course and we have to come up with a small project we can do using LabVIEW.  I am rather new to the program but have a little experience creating small VI's.  I came up with an idea that my prof has OKed but I am not even sure where to start or if this is even the right place to ask.  Anyways...

I want to build a 4 prop helicopter that I can control via LabVIEW.  I really only need to make it take off and land but am willing to put some work into it so the heli can do more.  I have come up with what I think will give me some basic control.  I was thinking all I would really need is Yaw Pitch and the overall RPM.  I would like to take this in baby steps.  First just control the RPM of the motor etc.  I know if I ever want it to fly without nose-diving, I am going to need a gyroscope.  I have a DC motor model GSK-804.  It has a motor speed control circuit.  I was thinking about using a square wave generator from LabVIEW and I've found it in the program but don't know how it works. 

I was thinking that I'd give it whatever command, which then goes through the gyroscope somehow before going to the motors so the gyro has time(?) to correct itself. 

This post is probably super disorganized but I just tried to get everything I was thinking out there so I could be corrected if I am doing something stupid (chances are, I am)  I have never really built anything like this before and would be forever grateful for someone to point me in the right direction.  Also if you need anymore info, let me know.

Thanks!

Ben

[mikeporter]

How many months do you have to work on this project? Controlling the flight of a quadrotor if far from being a trivial task. Do you at least have a commercial machine that you are working with?

Mike...

[Akiel]

does sound a complicated project but you have a good approach, get each bit working well then you can look at bringing them all together. I suspect there a number of examples around you can look at and possibly use.

Good Luck 

[bbastnag]

I laughed at first response or perhaps myself for my niavity. The prof is really cool and helpin me out with parts and said as long as I make progress on the project I'd be ok (he seems to find this interesting as well and would like to continue building after course is done). I have 2 weeks to make any kind of progress but plan on seeing the project to completion in the time after the course.
I have a lot of parts as the prof has a large cache of electronics etc.
So this is going to take months to build something that will move at all?

[johnsold]

It is good that you can laugh at yourself!

In two weeks you will not likely have a working quadrotor.  I suggest that you start by identifying all the things which need to be done: Motor speed control. Orientation sensing.  ...

Pick one or two things and work on them.  A simple motor speed control, especially open loop, might not be too much for a two week project.

Consider tilt sensors on each arm rather than gyros.  They will not tell you if it is rotating about the vertical axis, but will help keep level.  They are probably much simpler than gyros.  They could be as simple as a pendulum attached to a potentiometer.

Lynn

[bbastnag]

Nice! Thank you so much for your input. I thought about using a gyro and some sort of IR device for the vertical axis. I am not sure how I would build a tilt sensor but I can think about it for awhile. I know they have IR sensors for Helis online so of it comes down to it... I am excited to start messing around with it though. I'll strap it down to a table first though.

[johnsold]

Keep us informed of your progress.

Lynn