Arduino Based Self Stabilising Platform

Made by zeeshan0309 / Robotics / Sensors

About the project

Idea is to make a platform which dynamically stabilises itself in a sort of gimbal-ish fashion. I saw a primitive version of this floating on reddit a few months ago, in which only single axis was stabilized. So here's my design with dual axis stabilization. It performs quite well for how simple its mechanism actually is!

Project info

Difficulty: Easy

Platforms: Arduino

Estimated time: 3 hours

License: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (GPL3+)

Items used in this project

Hardware components

	Arduino Uno - R3 OR any other similar micro controller :)	x 1
	6 DOF Sensor MPU6050 for measuring the tilts	x 1
	TowerPro SG90C 360 Degree Micro Servo 1 servo for each axis	x 2

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE OR any other IDE, relevant to your Microprocessor

Hand tools and fabrication machines

styrofoam OR whatever building material you may prefer for building the 3D structure of platform

x 1

Story

Here I've shown how I made my Dual-axis Self Stabilizing Platform using "not so complex" methods lol. Self levelling systems have always fascinated me, whether they be in the for of a Gimbal or an Owl's head (yeah! if you don't know about this, google it. Really cool how owls can stabilise their head).

Basically the entire system has 3 main blocks-

The MPU6050 sensor which measures acceleration and rotations
The Microcontroller which, obviously, does all the processing
The servo motors which rotate and keep the platform Stable!

The frame was made with styrofoam, partly because it reduces weight, and mostly because I didn't have any other material with me at the moment haha! Nonetheless you can make you own frame with whatever material you have. Only thing to be taken care of while making this structure is that it should allow the Platform to have independent motions in the two axes- pitch and roll. Rest is upto the maker to tinker with it and optimise as per requirements

Schematics, diagrams and documents

Circuit Diagram for the system

Its mostly self explanatory. Two servos, each for an axis. MPU6050 using I2C communication for interaction with Arduino Uno. Using an external power supply for servo motors is preferable.

Code