Is this feasable?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,

Apologies if this isn't the right place to post, I read the intro and think it is.
I'm a complete newbie and based in the UK. I have made an LED blink, but that's it so far. I just want to run an idea by you all, to see if ...
a) it's possible with an Arduino
b) or would something else be better.

I'm developing in a 1/4 scale model of a Wing in Ground Effect craft so I can get the control circuitry finalised and tested as a prelude to building full size.
I need to be able to measure the distance to the water accurately using a microwave detector (speed and spray not an issue), feed that into a PID, to output to a servo to give a smooth curve and use an airspeed input to reduce the servo throw with speed. I need a user adjustable ride height between 2 and 4 metres so I'm looking to create a 'cruise control' very much like a car, but for height instead of speed.

When you consider what people are achieving with robotics it doesn't seem unachievable but I am mainly concerned with all the rest of the build - control is only a part of that build. I would love to have the time to learn it all myself but I just haven't, and it would be a lot to learn for just one project.
I have a Microwave tranceiver on order and it has Aduino code with it.
I know the Arduino can work as a PID and also output to a servo, but my question is, is it powerful enough to do it all at the same time?
I am willing to pay for someone to come up with a working system which incorporates the sensors and code to run them and I can provide the hardware to perfect the finished article.

I have tried 'People per hour' but seem to be drawing a blank so far.
I have detail on the components I need (microwave tranceiver for distance measuring, and the airspeed transducer on back order) but I'm just asking the question at the moment if it's do-able and if anyone is interesting in paid collaboration?

Sorry if this is not the correct etiquette.

Kind regards

Phil

2

It looks like You want a ready product and You don't want to "play with electronics and programming".
There is a section called "Gigs and collaboratoion". Try that!
Prepare for giving precise links to items like the microwave distance meter as well as the speed indicator.

3

Yes it's possible with an Arduino.

For a long time Arduino were pretty much the same in terms of processing power. Some had a little more ram or flash memory than others but they were all 8-bit, 16MHz. These days there is a much larger range of MCU under the "Arduino umberella", including 32-bit with speeds in the tens or hundreds of MHz, hardware floating point, etc etc...

I suspect even those basic Arduino will probably ok for your project, but if they are not, there is plenty of scope for upgrading later if needed.

4

couple of pointers.

#1) subject lines should be close to the topic.
a good subject line will have people who know about that take a look.
many stay away from "newest noob questions"

lifting body control system
would get more people who have some interest or experience.

also, I would suggest you use this part of the forum to develop the outline of what is needed and wanted.
contracted labor works better if the end point is well known.
along the way, you might find someone who either can do it, or knows of others doing similar work.
The beauty of this forum is that each contributor has some esoteric knowledge of something that has very little use for the opening of a chick coop door, but has an exacting use for....

in my view, this part of the forum will get more eyes than the gigs and coolaboration section. and this area will get more suggestions and details to help narrow the focus.

in reading, I thought of the RPi with a camera as look ahead to the horizon. when flying I use the horizon as my general reference if I want to climb, descend or fly level.