A Low-Cost Baro-Altimeter Model with Piezoresistive Sensor and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components

One of the most important parameters managed during the flight of an aero-vehicle is its barometric altitude. Depending on the aero-vehicle type, the used method for its determination can vary. The conventional method uses an aneroid capsule as sensitive element, but the development of technology has led to electronic versions. One of the variants is the one with piezoresistive sensor. The paper proposes a simple low-cost solution, with commercial off-the-shelf components, based on a piezoresistive sensor and a programming board. The calibration according to the equation of the dependence between altitude and atmospheric pressure, and the laboratory testing, although in the preliminary stage, led to promising results. A stand-alone baro-altimeter variant based on the same configuration is also proposed. Having in mind that the test results here provided refer at low altitudes, under 1600 m, an immediate application identified for our system is for low altitude drones.