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clolson
Dec 28, 2006, 12:16 AM
This isn't entirely on topic for UAV's, but perhaps this could be used as an interesting UAV remote pilot interface or perhaps used as part of your sensor suite?

The nintendo wii comes with a wii-mote which looks a lot like a TV remote but has a 3 axis accelerometer built in. It sends it's data to your computer via bluetooth so it is totally wireless. 3 axis accelerometer + blue tooth + ability to get the raw data out + a bunch of buttons in a robust package for about $50 ... interesting if nothing else.

So what can you do with it? Well at least with linux there are drivers in the wild that make this thing look like a normal joystick ... so once I got those drivers working, I fired up my faithful copy of FlightGear and did some flying.

Here are two videos of the wiimote in action ... remember control inputs are done totally through the wiimote which is sensing my motion through a 3 axis acceleromter and passing that data to my computer via bluetooth (and of course all of this is done with linux.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70kBhPfG2w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyFTc_XH0Zs

Regards,

Curt.
PurpleHaze
Dec 28, 2006, 08:17 AM
It reacts pretty slow if you compare your hand movement with the plane.
clolson
Dec 28, 2006, 08:47 AM
It reacts pretty slow if you compare your hand movement with the plane.

If you look at the control inputs on the hud (not part of the movie) then you can see that they react as quickly as you input them. It does take some time for a relatively large/fast moving aircraft to react to a small control input. You typically fly with a pretty light touch or you'll put your head through the canopy (or through your lap) and have a bad day ... :-)

Curt.
Steve McBride
Dec 28, 2006, 09:36 AM
Cool. Does it tend to 'drift' in use where you eventually have the controller in a not-so-ideal position and need to reposition it? That would be my concern with the next logical step (actual aircraft use). If so, can you program a thumb button so that if it drifts, you can depress it and reposition the controller upright?

Thanks for sharing.
clolson
Dec 28, 2006, 06:51 PM
Cool. Does it tend to 'drift' in use where you eventually have the controller in a not-so-ideal position and need to reposition it? That would be my concern with the next logical step (actual aircraft use). If so, can you program a thumb button so that if it drifts, you can depress it and reposition the controller upright?


Actually there is no drift. You aren't moving the unit laterally (well no significant long term motion relative to the earth) so you can always trust that it is reporting the correct gravity vector. As you tilt the unit, that gravity vector will change, and that vector can be directly translated into a joystick position.

You are never integrating anything, just looking at the 3 orthogonal acceleration vectors to see which direction is down.

This all breaks down when you start moving, but if you are sitting at your desk or your uav operator station, it works out amazingly well.

Curt.
ronmeister
Dec 28, 2006, 07:04 PM
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=615084#post6603688
Posted down there too.