Auto leveling gun turret

Hey guys, i need to make a auto leveling turret but have no clue of what accelerometer or gyroscope to use for it.
The basic idea is if the gun is pointed to a target, it should remain pointed at that point irrespective of the movement in the base. There should be a way to manually move the turret and lock it.
I have the general platform set up for it but need help with the gyroscope and the micro controller that i need to use. (i am familiar with the 8051)
Need some help.

pretty sure that's classified info....shouldn't be too hard to figure out, Chrysler did it.............

ha ha, yes but i am pretty sure its not that hard.

Varun.k said:

ha ha, yes but i am pretty sure its not that hard.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you've got it all figured out, keep us posted.

Suprisingly hard actually. You not only need to measure rotation of the base (not trivial but not insanely difficult, gyroscope or compass, or both would do but it's not likely to be accurate enough anyway), but you need to measure where the base as actually moved (much harder since neither GPS, odometry, or inertial tracking is not accurate enough). Of course, if you just want a system that crudely maintains the same direction as the base moves to make things easier for the human that actually does the aiming, then things get much easier because then you dont need targetting accuracy.

The alternative is some vision-like tracking system so it doesnt' matter if the base moves or the target moves. Then it can maintain the target rather than just keeping it in vision.

Of course, the target locking you described is not a "auto-levelling turret" in your thread title which is much easier. Accelerometer or inclinometer and bam.

Mainly on topic...

The old Naval gunfire method used "Synchros" to keep guns pointed at a target. Pitch-yaw-roll was feed from a master gyro into a analog fire control computer that controlled the elevation of the gun barrel and turret heading using "SYNCHRO DIFFERENTIAL" devices.

CHAPTER-7-D

**broken link removed**

Back in the 1980s I was part of the huge effort to reactivate/modernize the old Battleships and upgrade some of the systems to modern computers but the 16inch guns were still using the old analog system. Working on those ships was the coolest thing ever. Try cutting holes for running network cable through walls that are 17 inches thick.

**broken link removed**
https://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee178/PolarisBrian/Battleships/016284.jpg

""Suprisingly hard actually. You not only need to measure rotation of the base (not trivial but not insanely difficult, gyroscope or compass, or both would do but it's not likely to be accurate enough anyway), but you need to measure where the base as actually moved (much harder since neither GPS, odometry, or inertial tracking is not accurate enough). Of course, if you just want a system that crudely maintains the same direction as the base moves to make things easier for the human that actually does the aiming, then things get much easier because then you dont need targetting accuracy.

The alternative is some vision-like tracking system so it doesnt' matter if the base moves or the target moves. Then it can maintain the target rather than just keeping it in vision.

Of course, the target locking you described is not a "auto-levelling turret" in your thread title which is much easier. Accelerometer or inclinometer and bam.""






Yes i need some thing that maintains the same direction as the base moves. What sort of accelerometer to use and there will be some level of programing involved with micro controllers.
You mentioned something about vision like tracking. What u have in mind exactly.

I've seen the Wii motion plus used as a Gyro with a micro-controller.
Wii.com - Iwata Asks: Wii MotionPlus
YouTube - Wii Motion Plus (Roll-Pitch-Yaw Gyro) Hacked with Arduino - letsmakerobots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSERorNFUd8

what model of micro controller and gyro?

OK i have got a atmega 16 micro controller and an ADXL 330 accelerometer. Need help in interfacing the two. I am not able to figure out the out put of the accelerometer.
I need that to control the two servo which will finally determine the turret position.
I am using avr studio 4 and avr gcc compiler. Need help with the coding.
By any chance is there a code available for this any where?