Save time and energy in the design of the algorithms for Drones and DC motor control with ASN Filter Designer

Drones are one of the golden nuggets in AIoT. No wonder, they can play a pivotal role in congested cities and faraway areas for delivery. Further, they can be a great help to give an overview of a large area or for places which are difficult or dangerous to reach. Advanced Solutions did some research how the companies producing drones has solved some questions regarding their sensor technology. And in drones, there are a lot of sensors- and especial the DC motor control. We found out that with ASN Filter Designer, producers could have saved time and energy in the design of their algorithms with ASN Filter Designer.

Until now: hard-by found solutions

We found out that most producers had come very hard-by to their solutions. And that, when solutions are found, they are far from near perfect.

Probably, this producer has spent weeks or even months on finding these solutions. With ASN Filter Designer, he could have come to a solution within days or maybe hours. Besides, we expect that the measurement would be better too.

The most important issue is that algorithms were developed by handwork: developed in a ‘lab’ environment and then tried in real-life. With the result of the test, the algorithm would be adjusted again. Because a ‘lab’ environment where testing circumstances are stable, it’s very hard work to make the models work in ‘real’ life. For this, rounds and rounds of ‘lab development’ and ‘real life testing’ have to be made.

How ASN Filter Designer could have saved a lot of time and energy

ASN Filter Designer could have saved a lot of time in the design of the algorithms the following ways:

• Design, analyze and implement filters for Drone senor applications 
• Filters for speed and positioning control using sensorless BLDC motors
• Speed up deployment

Real-time feedback and powerful signal analyzer

One of the key benefits of the ASN Filter Designer and signal analyzer is that it gives real-time feedback. Once an algorithm is developed, it can easily be tested on real-life data. To capture the real-life data, the ASN Filter Designer has a powerful signal analyzer in place. The tool’s signal analyzer implements a robust zero-crossings detector, allowing engineers to evaluate and fine-tune a complete sensorless BLDC control algorithm quickly and simply.

Design and analyze filters the easy way                         

You can easily design, analyze and implement filters for drone sensor applications. Including: loadcells, strain gauges, torque, pressure, temperature, vibration and ultrasonic sensors. And assess their dynamic performance in real-time with different input conditions.  With the ASN Filter Designer, no algorithms are needed: you just have to drag the filter design. The tool calculates the coordinates itself.

For speed and position control using sensorless BLDC (brushless DC) motors based on back-EMF filtering you can easily experiment with the ASN Filter Designer. See the results in real-time for various IIR, FIR and median (majority filtering) digital filtering schemes. The tool’s signal analyzer implements a robust zero-crossings detector. So you can evaluate and fine-tune a complete sensorless BLDC control algorithm quickly and simply.

Speed up deployment

Perform detailed time/frequency analysis on captured test datasets and fine-tune your design. Our Arm CMSIS-DSP and C/C++ code generators and software frameworks speed up deployment to a DSP, FPGA or micro-controller.

Drones use lots of sensors, and most challenges will be solved with them! ASN Filter Designer provides you with a simple way of improving your sensor measurement performance with its interactive design interface.

So, if you have a measurement problem, ask yourself: will I have a lot of frustrating and costs (maybe not ‘out of pocket’, but still: costs) of creating a filter by hand? Or would I create my filter within days or even hours and save a lot of headache and money. Because: it’s already possible to have a full 3-month license for only 140 euro!