Kauai Labs navX-MXP User Manual page 17

Installation
Orientation
navX-MXP measures a total of 9 sensor axes (3 gyroscope axes, 3 accelerometer axes and 3
magnetometer axes) and fuses them into a 3-D coordinate system. In order to effectively use
the values reported by navX-MXP, a few key concepts must be understood in order to correctly
install navX-MXP on a robot.
3-D Coordinate System
When controlling a robot in 3 dimensions a set of 3 axes are combined into a 3-D coordinate
system, as depicted below:
In the diagram above, the green rounded arrows represent Rotational motion, and the
remaining arrows represent Linear motion.
Axis Orientation
X (Pitch) Left/Right
Y (Roll) Forward/Backward
Z (Yaw) Up/Down
More details are available on the
Reference Frames
Note that the 3-axis coordinate system describes relative motion and orientation; it doesn't
specify the orientation with respect to any other reference. For instance, what does "left" mean
once a robot has rotated 180 degrees?
Orientation
Linear motion
– Left / + Right
+ Forward / – Backward
+ Up / – Down
Terminology page.
Rotational Motion
+ Tilt Backwards
+ Roll Left
+ Clockwise/ – Counter-
wise
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