Hi all, i've been googling and reading up on plenty of projects and papers, but not much have been discussed about PID control and updating of PWM of quadrotor.
from my understanding, there are 2 ways of doing the quadrotor hover control..
1) brute force calibration, input = euler angles from IMU which most hobbyists do. set point=0 degree
front motor PWM = user_thrust + PIDpitch - PIDyaw
back motor PWM = user_thrust -PIDpitch - PIDyaw
left motor PWM = user+thrust+PIDroll+PIDyaw
right motor PWM = user thrust -PIDroll + PIDyaw
wait, do we calibrate all PID parameters for pitch roll yaw at the same time or do we calibrate them separately like see-saw balancing?
2) include dynamics, physics, consider moment of inertia.etcetc which research graduates do
Well i chose to use brute force calibration due to time constraints.
Here are some questions I have:
1) do we need to consider the Centre of Gravity in our PID control? My quadrotor's CG is more towards back motor.
2) What is the common frequency of PID control loop? Normally, the IMU data is updated then PID is updated right? The maximum I can go on my 16bit 33MHz MCU is 200Hz, and sending data wirelessly via XBee at 100Hz. Is it too slow?
3) I find my PID too slow because I can never find the Pgain(Igain=0 and Dgain=0) (i.e the pitch pole) that does not oscillate.
We need some limit of the maximum and minimum PWM if we are flying autonomously. however, my PID always reaches the maximum and minimum limit and by the time the pole crosses 0degree, the pitch pole does not change direction even though the PID has caused the PWM to switch. Please see attached (problem.jpg) note that my pwm has been shifted down to see the effects with respect to error pitch.
4) What is the frequency of the PWM sent to the ESC? reverse engineering the common RF receivers, the pwm used should be 50Hz. If we're updating PID(200Hz) wouldn't the PWM be too slow?
However, i have found somebody doing a test that going beyond 50Hz PWM actually affects the motor's thrust, which does more harm than good. please see attached (wobbletest.jpg)
5) Using Pgain and Dgain together, the control has improved, but the pitch pole still oscillates up to +/-20degrees which is bad. Increasing Dgain any further causes the pole to be "stuck".
6) My prof had actually advised me to use PDsquare control but it doesn't help because Dsquare refers to d(error square)/dt= d/dt[d(error)/dt] right? if 1/dt = 200, then will be multiplying the D term by 4000 which will hit the PWM limit even faster.
7) What is PID saturation, steady state error, integral windup, integral antiwindup? omg I'm noob with control theory.
/////My pid code in c/////
float inv_dt=200; // means 1/dt, pid loop at 200Hz
float error_pitch; //global variable
float fm,bm; //front motor and back motor pwm on cycle
float Kp_pitch,Ki_pitch,Kd_pitch; //set these values using my ground station when tuning
float PIDpitch(float Kp, float Ki, float Kd)
{
float previous_error;
previous_error= error_pitch;
error_pitch = 0 - kalman_pitch; //set point = 0 degree
integral_pitch += error_pitch*dt;
derivative_pitch = (error_pitch - previous_error)*inv_dt;
return (Kp*error_pitch)+(Ki*integral_pitch)+(Kd*derivative_pitch);
}
void motorControl() //controls front and back motor's PWM
{
float pitch=0; int temp=0;
pitch = PIDpitch(Kp_pitch,Ki_pitch,Kd_pitch); //update PID loop
fm=fm+pitch;
fm = 750 + pitch; //750=start off at 1.5ms
temp=(int)bm;
if(temp>1000)fm=1000; //max pwm limit 2ms
else if(temp<600)fm=600; //min pwm limit 1.2ms
TPU1.TGRA=(int)fm;
bm=bm-pitch;
bm = 750 - pitch; //750=start off at 1.5ms
temp=(int)bm;
if(temp>1000)bm=1000; //max pwm limit 2ms
else if(temp<600)bm=600; //min pwm limit 1.2ms
TPU3.TGRA=(int)bm;
}
Replies
Please se the ACM code http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2FAr...
It can fly perfectly stabilized with almost any kP value. Tuning is only a matter of deciding how responsive you want the quad to be.
What I've found that you need to limit the D term so that it is symmetrical with the P term. Think of two forces opposing each other. If one is greater it will oscillate. (The D term is the rate of rotation dampener.)
I term is not needed for the most part and you can fly fine without it.
Jason
i seem to face the same problems you faced !!
have you fixed it !!
i have also heard of LQR control !!have you tried it !!
hey guys i found a serious bloody error in my pid highlighted in red.
Thanks Roy. I asked this because im reading and searching about design, not only interested building Arducopter. The data is from one of the guys master thesis. As I read from the theses he makes linearization like on the data, measures each brushless and plot pwm versus speed of them. Then draws regression line, finds transfer function ( brushless gains etc ) then finds system model, then finally find PID parameters accourding to design. Since i dont see these kind of stuff here between ArduCopter people, i felt just a little curious.
I have found a solution to my previous question, but i have another now :)
Quadrotor and brushless motors used in the Quad systems are not LINEAR. So PID control design shouldnt work well with it if you run your brushless motors in nonlinear region. However, brushless motors have some region which is almost linear, So PID is ok to use in that range as a control method. So system must be linearized, then PID method should be used, thats what its needed. Here is an example of angular velocity versus pulse width. Its seen that there are nonlinear region.
The question im asking is do you guys measure your brushless and use that linear range before you write control algorithm ? Or just go for PID tuning and try to find parameters ? AeroQuad or ArduCopter codes are ready to use, so I guess most of the Quad users just go with PID tuning. Any comment will help, thanks...
For example while using fully charged 12.6V 3S Lipo on 9000rpm with XX brand brushless, it can supply 900gr thrust. On the other hand, everything same but Lipo charged only 11.0V, it may supply like 820gr thrust.
Therefore, because of different voltage conditions, PID parameters will never match. It will be ok only if I have a voltage feedback from LiPo's and then change PID parameters for each voltage level. Adding voltage feedback on the control algorithm will solve the problem i guess. Anyone do this kind of feedback for their PID ? Thanks, have a nice one...