Tag Archives: Control System

Using a Pan/Tilt Camera Servo to Track an Object of Interest in OpenCV

In this Video Lesson we show an initial control system that allows us to position a camera on a pan/tilt servo system to keep an object of interest in the center of the frame. The pan/tilt servo hat will continuously adjust so that the object we are tracking remains in the center of the frame. In this example we are only tracking in the ‘pan’ direction. It is left as a homework assignment for the student to extend the software to also track in the tilt direction. This should be a straightforward extension to our pan example.

 

9-Axis IMU LESSON 26: Understanding PID Control systems with Arduino


 

In this lesson we use our BNO055 9-axis sensor, and our pan-tilt servo mount to create a self-leveling platform based on a classic PID control system. The video takes you step by step through the theory behind a PID controller, and then demonstrates a practical example in hardware. In the video we develop the code below.

 

9-Axis IMU LESSON 24: How To Build a Self Leveling Platform with Arduino

In this lesson we develop the initial simple code for leveling the platform. We implement the simplest control system, which is to just increment or decrement the servos based on whether the actual position is greater or less than the target position. We increment/decrement by one degree, since this is the smallest allowed change in servo position. Next week we will implement a more sophisticated control system. Below is the arduino code developed in this lesson.