Stabilized gimbals for drones

A gimbal holds a camera or sensor and keeps it steady and pointed in the right direction while the aircraft moves, vibrates and manoeuvres. Without stabilisation, zoom and long-range imaging from a drone would be unusable.

Types

• Two- and three-axis gimbals: brushless motor gimbals for cameras on multirotors, stabilising pitch, roll and yaw.
• Gyro-stabilised turrets (EO/IR): sealed ball turrets with several sensors (visible, thermal, laser rangefinder or illuminator) for surveillance and tactical UAVs.
• Open-frame and payload-agnostic gimbals: accept third-party cameras.

Key specifications

• Stabilisation accuracy (in microradians for high-end turrets), which sets usable zoom.
• Payload capacity and supported cameras.
• Pointing range and slew rates in pan and tilt; continuous 360° pan.
• Onboard functions: target tracking, geo-pointing, geo-location of targets, video stabilisation.
• Interfaces: control over serial, CAN or Ethernet; integration with the autopilot and ground station.
• Mass, diameter and power.
• Sealing and environmental range.

Choosing

The longer the focal length, the better the stabilisation must be: a small pointing error becomes a large image movement at long range. Check stabilisation figures measured on vibration platforms representative of your aircraft, and how the gimbal integrates with your cameras and control software.

Manufacturers in the directory

Examples include Gremsy, Trillium Engineering, Hood Technology and NextVision.