Posted: This year’s course material offers some very interesting problems for driving and accelerating. With the crappy wheels and the fact that the robot is acting as if it were only one sixth the weight it would be on carpet, there is not much of a dependence on the type of drive train for the robot. That gives a chance for the programmers to step in and implement some pretty intense code to deal with when it comes to slide control on the “slippery” surface. Our team has thought of some pretty amazing code ideas and formulas to do just that.
Based on some calculations we found on ChiefDelphi, we know that the limitations of the field make it impossible to go faster than 2.2 m/s. Therefore, our programmers have made it impossible for our robot to do that as to take full advantage of the axis length of the joysticks. This was pretty fun to do in and of itself. However, it gets more interesting.
Using math based on the coefficient of gravity, RPMs, and gear ratios, we have found a formula to improve our acceleration. Even if the driver of the robot were to push the joystick completely forward, our team has made it so that the wheels do not instantly go to full speed. If they did, our robot would only stand in place and eventually slip out of control due to the surface. Using a slower acceleration allows our robot to keep more control of itself, even when accelerating and decelerating. And being from Wisconsin, we know what it’s like to drive on icy surfaces so that helped.
This year any sort of help to the driver that software can offer is going to help. Using the rich interface of LabView we have been able to get great feedback and use powerful controls with our code. We look forward to finding even more about this year’s code and challenges!
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