<p>You can certainly use a PID based design and tune it from there. This design is simple enough that if you just have XYZ PID controllers and proper output mixing it should work just fine.</p>
<p>I'd recommend doing something similar to his design where the motors are far from the center of mass which will increase the torque generated by tilting the motors.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-28T18:22:37.413Z
2020-06-28T18:22:37.413Z
Luca Scheuer
<p>The bottom gimballing propeller is basically the same as the control for a rocket.  State space control theory was invented to solve this problem.  Even there, you are controlling a linearized version of an inverted pendulum.  The further you move from vertical, the less accurate the model is.</p>
<p>Having said that, there are hobbyists that do PID gimbal control of model rockets.  However, they just want to go straight up.</p>
<p>State space control should be your best bet, but this is typically a full college course to fully understand (if you're lucky and already understand the basics of closed loop control).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-10T04:37:07.503Z
2021-02-10T04:37:07.503Z
Dan Christian
<p>I am planning to build a remote controlled dualcopter where I have two propellers, one on top and one on the bottom. The bottom rotor will be gimbal based for thrust vectoring. Something like this,</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b14_XQ5nd2A" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b14_XQ5nd2A</a></p>
<p>I want to build the controller from scratch (the fella in the video used Multiwii Mega flight board controller). Do I need to get into ODEs, differential equations, etc. as the following paper has done?</p>
<p><a href="https://andrew.gibiansky.com/downloads/pdf/Quadcopter%20Dynamics,%20Simulation,%20and%20Control.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://andrew.gibiansky.com/downloads/pdf/Quadcopter%20Dynamics,%20Simulation,%20and%20Control.pdf</a></p>
<p>Or is this overkill? Could I simply use a PID based design for a target tilt, adjust control to reach it, and do the same for motor speed, etc?</p>

<flight-controller><diy><pid>
Drone Controller, PID Is Enough, or ODE Modeling Required?
BBSysDyn
# Drone Controller, PID Is Enough, or ODE Modeling Required?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-26)

I am planning to build a remote controlled dualcopter where I have two propellers, one on top and one on the bottom. The bottom rotor will be gimbal based for thrust vectoring. Something like this,

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b14_XQ5nd2A>

I want to build the controller from scratch (the fella in the video used Multiwii Mega flight board controller). Do I need to get into ODEs, differential equations, etc. as the following paper has done?

<https://andrew.gibiansky.com/downloads/pdf/Quadcopter%20Dynamics,%20Simulation,%20and%20Control.pdf>

Or is this overkill? Could I simply use a PID based design for a target tilt, adjust control to reach it, and do the same for motor speed, etc?

**Tags:** flight-controller, diy, pid

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-06-28. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You can certainly use a PID based design and tune it from there. This design is simple enough that if you just have XYZ PID controllers and proper output mixing it should work just fine.

I'd recommend doing something similar to his design where the motors are far from the center of mass which will increase the torque generated by tilting the motors.

Good luck!


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### Answer by username_2 on 2021-02-10. Score: 0

The bottom gimballing propeller is basically the same as the control for a rocket. State space control theory was invented to solve this problem. Even there, you are controlling a linearized version of an inverted pendulum. The further you move from vertical, the less accurate the model is.

Having said that, there are hobbyists that do PID gimbal control of model rockets. However, they just want to go straight up.

State space control should be your best bet, but this is typically a full college course to fully understand (if you're lucky and already understand the basics of closed loop control).


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