Lesson 8 40 mins 

Accelerometer is an in-built sensor on Puto

WHAT IS AN ACCELEROMETER? (10 mins) 

Accelerometers are used in smartphones and many other systems. An example could be the screen rotation in smartphones. Its working is interesting to understand. YouTube videos can be used to explain its working.

Accelerometers are used to determine position and orientation of the drone in flight. Accelerometer measures the proper acceleration. Accelerometer values help determine the roll and pitch movements of the drone 

Accelerometer notices the change in the acceleration due to gravity whenever the drone performs a movement along the X axis (forward and backward)or along the Y axis (sidewards) 

So basically the accelerometer is capable of knowing the roll and pitch of the drone. 

HOW DOES AN ACCELEROMETER WORK? (15 mins) 

Refer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_iXLNkkjFo&t=77s 

CHUCK TO ARM EXPERIMENT (PLUTO BLOCKS) (15 mins) 

This experiment is a good application of accelerometer sensor. Students can code it in Pluto Blocks else trainer can showcase it by explaining the working.

Normally, you arm your drone by keeping it on the ground/floor. Instead of this typical method, you can now arm your drone by tossing it in the air. 

When you toss the drone in the air, it needs to arm itself at that moment. Thus, you need to program the drone to detect that moment. When the drone is tossed in the air, the Accelerometer data should reach zero. If this value is not because of a crash, then the drone should arm itself. Remember to arm the drone from the app before running the project.