2018-09-18, 03:47 PM
Simple explanation (for now)
Starting out, you mostly need just D gain, and a bit of P to avoid drifting off course. It's possible to hold a course using just these two gains setting all the rest to zero. From there, try adding other gains to see the difference.
Notes:
1) Using a high value for PR, and cutting the P gain way back can reduce overshoot and oscillation, but some P is usually needed.
2) The I gains is useful if the course held has an offset from the course desired, or following routes is along a parallel line rather than the actual route.
3) The FF gain helps in maneuvering, tacking, and following routes.
4) The DD gain can be useful to reduce oscillation, try slowly increasing it, but not to a value higher than 1.5x of the D gain
5) Lower gains typically mean lower power consumption, but not always. If the gains are too high, the autopilot will track all over.
6) A fairly wide range of P and D gains can yield similar performance, especially in light conditions
In the future I am looking forward to auto-tuning, as well as different options for non-PID control such as neural networks, which can learn and utilize more sensor inputs, but I am not there yet.
Starting out, you mostly need just D gain, and a bit of P to avoid drifting off course. It's possible to hold a course using just these two gains setting all the rest to zero. From there, try adding other gains to see the difference.
Notes:
1) Using a high value for PR, and cutting the P gain way back can reduce overshoot and oscillation, but some P is usually needed.
2) The I gains is useful if the course held has an offset from the course desired, or following routes is along a parallel line rather than the actual route.
3) The FF gain helps in maneuvering, tacking, and following routes.
4) The DD gain can be useful to reduce oscillation, try slowly increasing it, but not to a value higher than 1.5x of the D gain
5) Lower gains typically mean lower power consumption, but not always. If the gains are too high, the autopilot will track all over.
6) A fairly wide range of P and D gains can yield similar performance, especially in light conditions
In the future I am looking forward to auto-tuning, as well as different options for non-PID control such as neural networks, which can learn and utilize more sensor inputs, but I am not there yet.