DIY Arduino Drone

DIY Arduino Drone

Image: Dji Spark (216743491).jpeg by Jp Valery via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

How It Works

• An MPU6050 IMU reports the drone's current tilt and rotation rate on all three axes, hundreds of times per second.
• A PID control loop compares the current orientation against the desired (usually level) orientation and computes correction values for each axis.
• Those corrections adjust the individual speed of each of the four motors through their ESCs — speeding up motors on the low side and slowing motors on the high side to level the craft.
• A separate RF/Bluetooth receiver relays pilot throttle and directional input, which the flight controller blends with the stabilization corrections.

Components

Arduino Uno/Nano/Pro Mini (flight controller)
MPU6050 gyroscope/accelerometer
4x brushless motors + ESCs
Quadcopter frame + propellers
RF/Bluetooth receiver for pilot input
LiPo battery

Applications

• Educational drone-building and flight-control demonstrations
• Foundational platform for aerial photography/videography extensions
• Teaching PID control theory in a physically visible system

Advantages

• Exposes the actual stabilization algorithm, unlike a closed commercial flight controller
• Strong hands-on demonstration of PID control theory
• Extendable toward GPS waypoint navigation or camera payload as a further project

Sample Code — PID Stabilization Outline

// Simplified PID stabilization outline - Arduino + MPU6050
#include 
#include 
MPU6050 mpu;
float kP = 2.0, kI = 0.5, kD = 1.0;
float errorSum = 0, lastError = 0;

void loop() {
  float currentAngle = readTiltAngle(mpu); // from accelerometer/gyro fusion
  float targetAngle = 0; // level flight

  float error = targetAngle - currentAngle;
  errorSum += error;
  float derivative = error - lastError;
  float correction = kP * error + kI * errorSum + kD * derivative;
  lastError = error;

  adjustMotorSpeeds(correction); // apply to ESCs, opposite motors get opposite sign
}

Related Research

• Precision Drone Control using MPU6050 Sensor Integration — IJERT