6.3 - 6-axis Motion Tracking

The MPU-6050 is a 6-axis(combines 3-axis Gyroscope, 3-axis Accelerometer) motion tracking devices.

An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration.For example, an accelerometer at rest on the surface of the Earth will measure an acceleration due to Earth’s gravity, straight upwards[3] (by definition) of g ≈ 9.81 m/s2.

Accelerometers have many uses in industry and science. For example: inertial navigation systems for aircraft and missiles, for keeping images on tablets and digital cameras vertical, etc.

Gyroscopes are used to measure orientation and angular velocity of a device or maintenance. Applications of gyroscopes include anti-rollover and airbag systems for automobiles, motion sensing systems for smart devices, attitude stabilization systems for drones, and more.

• MPU6050 Module

Bill of Materials

In this project, we need the following components.

It’s definitely convenient to buy a whole kit, here’s the link:

Name	ITEMS IN THIS KIT	LINK
Kepler Kit	450+	Kepler Kit

You can also buy them separately from the links below.

SN	COMPONENT	QUANTITY	LINK
1	Raspberry Pi Pico W	1	BUY
2	Micro USB Cable	1
3	Breadboard	1	BUY
4	Wires	Several	BUY
5	MPU6050 Module	1

Schematic

Wiring

Code

Note

• You can open the file 6.3_6axis_motion_tracking.ino under the path of kepler-kit-main/arduino/6.3_6axis_motion_tracking.

• Or copy this code into Arduino IDE.

• For detailed tutorials, please refer to Open & Run Code Directly.

Don’t forget to select the Raspberry Pi Pico W board and the correct port before clicking the Upload button.

Here you need to use the library called Adafruit_MPU6050, please check if it has been uploaded to Pico W, for a detailed tutorial refer to Add libraries.

After running the program, you can see the 3-axis accelerometer values and 3-axis gyroscope values cycling through the output. At this point you rotate the MPU6050 at random, and these values will appear to change accordingly. To make it easier to see the changes, you can comment out one of the print lines and concentrate on another set of data.

How it works?

Instantiate an MPU6050 object.

#include <Adafruit_MPU6050.h>
#include <Wire.h>

Adafruit_MPU6050 mpu;

Initialize the MPU6050 and set its accuracy.

void setup(void) {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    while (!Serial)
        delay(10); // will pause Zero, Leonardo, etc until serial console opens

    Serial.println("Adafruit MPU6050 test!");

    // Try to initialize!
    if (!mpu.begin()) {
        Serial.println("Failed to find MPU6050 chip");
        while (1) {
        delay(10);
        }
    }
    Serial.println("MPU6050 Found!");

    // Set range
    mpu.setAccelerometerRange(MPU6050_RANGE_8_G);
    mpu.setGyroRange(MPU6050_RANGE_500_DEG);
    mpu.setFilterBandwidth(MPU6050_BAND_21_HZ);

    Serial.println("");
    delay(100);
}

Get new sensor events with the readings.

sensors_event_t a, g, temp;
mpu.getEvent(&a, &g, &temp);

Subsequently, you will be able to get real-time acceleration and angular velocity values in the data a.acceleration.x, a.acceleration.y, a.acceleration.z, g.gyro.x, g.gyro.y, g.gyro.z.

Serial.print("Acceleration X: ");
Serial.print(a.acceleration.x);
Serial.print(", Y: ");
Serial.print(a.acceleration.y);
Serial.print(", Z: ");
Serial.print(a.acceleration.z);
Serial.println(" m/s^2");

Serial.print("Rotation X: ");
Serial.print(g.gyro.x);
Serial.print(", Y: ");
Serial.print(g.gyro.y);
Serial.print(", Z: ");
Serial.print(g.gyro.z);
Serial.println(" rad/s");