Android SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST isn't fast enough

Question

I'm using the sensors to balance a robot, but SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST only provides a 10Hz sampling rate, which is simply not fast enough. Is there a way of sampling even faster?

Is there a way of polling the sensors rather than waiting for a SensorEvent ?

Answer 1

Is there a way of sampling even faster?

SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST is a 0ms delay. You cannot have negative time, at least as far as physicists have determined. Hence, there is no "faster" delay than SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST.

Use Traceview to determine where your time is being taken up. It is possible that it is your code that is slowing down your processing.

a way of polling the sensors rather than waiting for a SensorEvent ?

No, sorry.

Answer 2

I would check to optimize code as well, but why do you need faster than 10Hz? In my opinion you could just write a better 'balance' algorithm to reduce the need for a faster sample.

For instance when your robot is say 5 degrees to the right you'll try to correct for 4 degrees instead and reduce the need for a re-correction. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm open to suggestions too!

Answer 3

Since Android version 2.3, the sensors can be queried through the NDK, which will allow much faster polling.