[seanwitte]

RC helicopters use gyros to control the tail rotor. They sit between the receiver and the servo/esc for the tail and modify the control signal sent to the output. The input is the desired PWM value and the output is the modified PWM value. The gyro will attempt to hold the heli tail in a fixed position when the input is neutral, but will allow the tail to move when a non-neutral input is applied.

We used the ADXRSxxx gyros on the robot to integrate the heading, but I never thought of using one of these simple gyros to make the robot drive straight. For a holonomic platform you have three components to your drive commands: X, Y, and rotation (W). Take the W value and send to to one of the user-controlled PWM outputs connected to the gyro input. Connect the gyro output back to the RC and read the pulse width to determine the modified signal value. Use the modified value to drive the robot instead of the original W value. I have no idea whether it would work or how well, but I was curious whether anyone has done it.