IMU-Controlled Dino Game 🦖

A classic side-scrolling dinosaur game with a twist! Instead of using a keyboard, you control the character's jump by physically tilting an ESP32 with an MPU6050 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). A sharp upward tilt makes the dino jump high, while a gentle tilt results in a short hop.

This project demonstrates real-time sensor data processing, wireless communication over Wi-Fi, and interactive C# WPF application development.

Demo Video

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How It Works

The project consists of two main parts: the ESP32 with the MPU6050 sensor and the WPF game application running on a PC.

ESP32 & MPU6050 Sensor Fusion

The ESP32 is the brain of the control system. It continuously reads raw data from the MPU6050, which contains a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope.

• Gyroscope: Excellent for measuring rotation, but it suffers from "drift" over time, meaning its sense of "level" will slowly wander.
• Accelerometer: Measures gravitational force, so it always knows which way is down. It's great for long-term stability but is very noisy and susceptible to errors from movement (acceleration).

To get the best of both worlds, we use a Complementary Filter. This is a sensor fusion algorithm that combines the gyroscope and accelerometer data.

In simple terms, the filter trusts the gyroscope for quick, short-term rotation changes and uses the accelerometer to correct any long-term drift. In this project's code, alpha is set to 0.98, meaning the final angle is 98% from the integrated gyro reading and 2% from the accelerometer reading. This provides a stable and responsive pitch angle (angleX), which is then sent over Wi-Fi to the game.

WPF Game Application

The C# WPF application acts as a TCP server, listening for a connection from the ESP32. Once connected, it:

1. Receives Angle Data: It continuously reads the pitch angle data sent from the ESP32.
2. Detects Jump Action: It calculates the speed of the pitch change. A quick upward change in the angle triggers a jump.
3. Calculates Jump Force: The faster the tilt, the higher the initial jump velocity applied to the player character.
4. Runs the Game Loop: It handles player physics (gravity), moves obstacles, checks for collisions, and updates the score.

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Requirements

Hardware ⚙️

• ESP32 development board
• MPU6050 Gyroscope/Accelerometer module
• Jumper wires
• A Wi-Fi network

Software 👨‍💻

• Arduino IDE with the ESP32 board manager installed.
• Visual Studio 2022
• Required Arduino Libraries:
  • Adafruit MPU6050

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Setup & Installation

1. Hardware Connection: Wire the MPU6050 to your ESP32.
   • VCC -> 3V3
   • GND -> GND
   • SCL -> GPIO 22 (ESP32's default SCL pin)
   • SDA -> GPIO 21 (ESP32's default SDA pin)

2. ESP32 Setup:

   • Open the ESP32 code (imu3d.ino) in the Arduino IDE.
   • Install the required libraries from the Library Manager.
   • Update the Wi-Fi credentials in the code:

     const char* ssid = "YOUR_WIFI_SSID";
     const char* password = "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD";

3. WPF Game Setup:

   • Open the IMU3D_MPU6050_WPF.sln file in Visual Studio.
   • Build and run the project (press F5).
   • The application window will appear and display the IP address it's listening on (e.g., Listening on 192.168.1.9:12345...).

4. Connect Them:

   • Go back to the Arduino code(imu3d.ino). Update the host_ip to the IP address shown in the game window.

     const char* host_ip = "192.168.1.9"; // Use the IP from the WPF app

   • Re-upload the code to the ESP32.
   • Power on the ESP32. It should now connect to the game, and the status will change to "Client Connected!".

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How to Play

• The game starts automatically once the ESP32 is connected.
• Tilt the MPU6050 sensor upwards to make the character jump.
• A fast, sharp tilt will make it jump high. A slow, gentle tilt will result in a small hop.
• Avoid the obstacles! If you hit one, the game is over.
• Press the 'R' key on your keyboard to restart after a game over.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you find a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue or submit a pull request.