Reducing Drift in KOP Gyroscope

[stevethetinker]

We (1288) have used gyros in some years. The stability of the KOP gyro was not an issue. They have been good enough for the autonomous period. The 2010 robot had a gyro, but was not used in competition. I have since been working with that robot developing a better drive system. The gyro drifted enough to be a problem. It would drift 10 degrees or more in just a minute or two, which was a big problem for field-oriented drive controls. I replaced it with a new gyro from Andymark and the drift is much less. I'd say your 0.01 degree per 2-3 seconds is good for this technology. As noted in other posts, these gyros are temperature sensitive. There is an on-chip temperature sensor that you can access through another analog input. The hard part is measuring the temperature-drift equation. Once you have that you can compensate for most of the drift.