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Wii - Motion Plus (Nintendos Latest Roll-Pitch-Yaw Gyro sensor ) meets the Arduino

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By Gareth

November 26, 2009
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Nintendos amazing add-on wins again..........

Thought i would blog this to get the LMR2 "Think Tank" activated,

......... so come on ..... any brilliant ideas what can be done with it ?.

Nintendo in a bid to improve thier Wii gaming unit brought out a small unit that attaches to the bottom of the Wii remote controller (bluetooth)

The Result is a Roll-Pitch-Yaw Gyro sensor (-: at a very competative price :-) which can be Hacked to read the raw gyro information via the i2C bus.

From my initial tests it appears to be pretty fast and responsive .........

Video URL  Wii - Motion Plus (Nintendos new Roll-Pitch-Yaw Gyro sensor ) meets the Arduino

 

Embedded video: 

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By webmaster
@ Sat, 2011-01-01 21:08
webmaster's picture

Cool! Thanks Gareth :)

By derherrk
@ Fri, 2010-08-06 16:42

any infos regarding the layout and code?

thanks!

By robologist
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 09:00
robologist's picture
Think this could be cool for a remote controlled vehicle, one that used omniwheels or mechanum wheels. The roll could be side to side motion, yaw could be twisting heading, and pitch could be front to back motion. Is pretty good data coming off the sensor? Sometimes the video shows a servo twitch one way, when the gesture is another, but that could be program interpretation, was just curious. Pretty cool hack.
By Gareth
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 11:34
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Yes this whole hand-eye coordinate system appeals to me to. 

Yes it would be quite satisfying to apply to Omniwheelbots as the have an inherent rotational need.

A standard RC control unit needs you to split your brain and thumbs to do two differnet things at one time ............

...... whereas both the MotionPlus and the Nunchuck relieve the "Brain Stress" (single handed) so you can concentrate on enjoying the moment (if you know what i mean).

Re:- jittery servos.

The output from the gyros range between -10 to +10 @ rest    and  -7000 to +7000 full fast movement (really approx figures) Quite a range.

The Servo demo in the Video is not such a good example as i converted all readings into positive ie abs()  so the direction of movement is not true - video shows only gyro reation and not direction (but it can be programmed for direction)

By patrickmccabe
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 01:40
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Like the ideas above, i was thinking a flying robot would be cool. A plane that could be controlled with this would be awesome. Maybe make a wheel like they sell for wii. Then you could fly the plane with the wheel and "pull up" to make the plane go up, ect. 
By TeleFox
@ Thu, 2009-11-26 23:51
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There are some good photos of the inside of the Motion Plus if you Google image-search it - the board inside the Motion Plus module is very small, and could defnitely be added to even a small flying bot.

The 3-axis gyroscope could also make for a pretty flash 2-axis inverted pendulum bot, i.e. one that can move forward/back and strafe left/right as well as turn.

By Gareth
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 12:16
Gareth's picture

Flight application would be good - however i am having trouble how a gyro is applied in general to planes - as it only gives an error signal during rotational movement so it has to be fast to correct !!! ........ somehow you would still need to measure a horizontal element level flight as well ( can see how i am confused)

My Brain is trying trying trying to see the whole picture here......

Do you mean like this Drunken Soccer

or this  Drunken Kung Fu (Jackie Chan must have more that 3 Gyros i recon)

If neither then a sketch would help .......

By TeleFox
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 13:16
TeleFox's picture

Well, I got a [Blue Screen of Death]™ just before I could post my original message, so you get the penalty (benefit?) of the short version.

Gyros are great, but they don't work for bot orientation because they tend to accumulate errors over time. Having a more accurate gyro system only delays the increasing error, but you can't really get rid of it, and before long your bot doesn't realise it is doing a handstand.
The solution? One option is to add an accelerometer, which has almost the opposite characteristics to the gyro. Provided the bot is moving with constant velocity and/or rotation, the accelerometer can get a very good reading for the direction of 'down'. If the bot is accelerating or decelerating the accelerometer will be less accurate, but the main problem is that the accelerometer doesn't have the response speed of a gyro.
If you combine the two, you get a system with the advantages of both the gyro and accelerometer. The gyro will tell your bot how it is rotating at any instant in time, which allows for precise and fast control over the bot's motion, which in turn makes for great stability for a flier. The accelerometer keeps the gyro in check by reminding the system which way is down, and it can also give the bot information about any linear acceleration the bot is experiencing.

By TinHead
@ Fri, 2009-11-27 10:42
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Is that it would be very useful for something that .... fly's. FlyBot??

 Later edit:

On a second thought it also could be useful to keep something level.. like the gun on a tank ...good aiming TankBot??

 

A lot later:

Fixed spelling ... bah