Thought Bubble (EEG Controlled Blimp)
Team: Alex Dodge, Ezer Longinus, Johnny Lu, Stepan Boltalin
Gyro Controller
This project’s original aim was to implement Electroencephalograph data to remotely drive a helium blimp. Concept and early development can be seen here.
It became clear that the quality of data and signal quality in general that could be acquired with affordable components or even the modified “Mind Flex” EEG toy was not suitable for controlling a motorized vehicle (even as slow moving as our dirigible).
Rather than scrap the project we concluded that the challenge of successfully making a remote controlled blimp was a worthwhile pursuit in and of itself.
We fabricated our blimp using aluminized Mylar film -chemically fused using an MEK-based adhesive. The on board controller was a standard Arduino Duemilanove as was the remote controller. We used an RF Link Transmitter (WRL-08946) and Receiver (WRL-08950) available from SparkFun. The servo and DC motors were held in place with Lego parts and cable ties. The handheld controller used a dual axis gyro sensor to map “forward”, “steady”, “backward”, “left”, “right”. Our Arduino code here: Transmitter / Receiver
Great! But the hand held controller use a gyro from Adafruit, not an accelerometer, correct? Excellent Mylar binding technique too.
Yes! thanks for catching that. I just changed it. We had been calling it an accelerometer for some reason… I need to get the part number but will post.