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MC rate controller: add low-pass filter for D-term #8920

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merged 6 commits into from
Feb 19, 2018
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bkueng
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@bkueng bkueng commented Feb 19, 2018

Simpler version of #7698.

This adds a butterworth low-pass filter to the D-term of the rate controller.
The idea behind this is: The D-term uses the derivative of the rate and thus is the most susceptible to noise. Therefore, using a D-term filter allows to decrease the driver-level filtering, which leads to reduced control latency and permits to increase the P gains.

Output Noise

I was using IMU_GYRO_CUTOFF=90 for my testing. I think I could go even higher, but I should also reduce the on-chip filtering (which I did not do for these tests).

With IMU_GYRO_CUTOFF=90, I have visible noise on the outputs, but the quad still flies. I tested different values for the D-term cutoff filter frequency, and it reduces the noise on the output indeed. I found for my quad a cutoff frequency of 70 removes most of the noise.
This is the FFT for actuator outputs without D-term filter (first 3 motors):
fft_actuator_outputs_mc_dterm_cutoff 0

This is using D-term filter frequency = 30:
fft_actuator_outputs_mc_dterm_cutoff 30

Tuning Gains

I was flying with a P gain of 0.18 before, and was able to increase it to 0.28 now. I tested the same gains against the state of master (IMU_GYRO_CUTOFF=30, MC_DTERM_CUTOFF=0), and it has strong, visible oscillations, meaning it doesn't fly:

The filter is disabled by default, thus it should not be problematic to merge. We should evaluate the whole filtering pipeline and default values once we have #8731.
In future, we can also experiment with different lp filters.

@AndreasAntener @bresch @MaEtUgR @RomanBapst @Stifael

- use the same value for both
- lower control latency allows increasing these gains
…he D-term

The filter is disabled by default, thus the behavior is unchanged.
_lp_filters_d[0].set_cutoff_frequency(_loop_update_rate_hz, _params.d_term_cutoff_freq);
_lp_filters_d[1].set_cutoff_frequency(_loop_update_rate_hz, _params.d_term_cutoff_freq);
_lp_filters_d[2].set_cutoff_frequency(_loop_update_rate_hz, _params.d_term_cutoff_freq);
_lp_filters_d[0].reset(_rates_prev(0));
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Reset on any param change?

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Right, I changed it to update only when the frequency changes.

_rates_int +
rates_d_scaled.emult(_rates_prev - rates) / dt +
_rates_int -
rates_d_scaled.emult(rates_filtered - _rates_prev_filtered) / dt +
_params.rate_ff.emult(_rates_sp);

_rates_sp_prev = _rates_sp;
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I don't think _rates_sp_prev is used anywhere?

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yep, removed.

@dagar
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dagar commented Feb 19, 2018

Asking out of curiosity, did you consider BlockDerivative?
https://github.com/PX4/Firmware/blob/master/src/lib/controllib/BlockDerivative.hpp

math::Vector<3> _rates_prev; /**< angular rates on previous step */
math::Vector<3> _rates_sp_prev; /**< previous rates setpoint */
math::LowPassFilter2p _lp_filters_d[3]; /**< low-pass filters for D-term (roll, pitch & yaw) */
static constexpr const float initial_update_rate_hz = 250.f; /**< loop update rate used for initialization */
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I think we're soon going to need a mechanism to set this system wide (single param or programmatically).

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This is only for initialization. A module needs to be able to determine this on its own and at runtime.

@bkueng
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bkueng commented Feb 19, 2018

Asking out of curiosity, did you consider BlockDerivative?

I've seen it before, but forgot about it. It's using a different filter, and comes with the typical Block* overhead. I think it can be useful to have a separate derivative class, but since the derivative is only used in one place, I don't see it being useful in that case.

LorenzMeier
LorenzMeier previously approved these changes Feb 19, 2018
@LorenzMeier LorenzMeier merged commit 7b5b1c4 into master Feb 19, 2018
@LorenzMeier LorenzMeier deleted the d-term_filter branch February 19, 2018 16:02
@mhkabir
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mhkabir commented Feb 19, 2018

I'm seeing an incredible performance increase on my racer after applying this PR and adjusting cutoff frequencies! Thanks @bkueng!

@bkueng
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bkueng commented Feb 19, 2018

Awesome! Do you have a video & log? 😬

@hamishwillee
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@bkueng Is this something we could usefully add docs for in devguide? Perhaps part of a rate controller diagram?

@bkueng
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bkueng commented Feb 20, 2018

@hamishwillee yes it should be part of the diagram. But do we already have one for the attitude & rate controller? I only see the one for position.

@hamishwillee
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@bkueng No, not yet (FYI we do have an FW attitude controller going in soon). Perhaps worth talking to @bresch about whether you can work together on that?

@MaEtUgR
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MaEtUgR commented Feb 21, 2018

@bkueng You're the man making it happen! This filtering process is super important, thanks a lot!

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6 participants