Gyroscopes - Hardware

Note

This section covers gyro hardware. For a software guide to gyros, see Gyroscopes - Software.

Gyroscopes (or “gyros”, for short) are devices that measure rate-of-rotation. These are particularly useful for stabilizing robot driving, or for measuring heading or tilt by integrating (adding-up) the rate measurements to get a measurement of total angular displacement.

Several popular FRC® devices known as IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) combine 3-axis gyros, accelerometers, and other position sensors into one device. Some popular examples are:

• CTRE Pigeon 2.0 IMU

• Kauai Labs NavX

The most common type of Gyros used in FRC are three-axis gyros, commonly included in IMUs.

Three-axis gyros measure rotation rate around all three spatial axes (typically labeled x, y, and z). The motion around these axis is called pitch, yaw, and roll.

Note

The coordinate system shown above is often used for three axis gyros, as it is a convention in avionics. Note that other coordinate systems are used in mathematics and referenced throughout WPILib. Please refer to the Drive class axis diagram for axis referenced in software.

Peripheral three-axis gyros typically communicate over the CAN Bus to send data.