pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

I saw those in action at BMR, they seemed to be really quite effective and efficient. Did he design and fabricate the entire assembly himself or was there some sort of plan that he worked off of (eg: playstation gloves)?

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

since this is allowed first should ease up on crossing over the line.

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

Yeah, how does that work with the whole not touching the controls until the autonomous period is over? I saw this on thursday at great lakes and I think the opinion of my whole team was "dude, that thing is sweet."

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

yea they should because if you think about it he can control the arm with the movement of his hand. so he is always holding the controls. and isn't touching the controls during auto mus illegal? i don't have a problem with their controls being like that but i think that they should have it disabled and prove it to be disabled to the refs and then enable it after auto mode turns off and human mode starts. what does every one think?

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

Matt did make the whole set up himself. We went through several ideas, originally we had wanted flex sensors that would allow you to bend your fingers and extend the robot's arm, but they were too unreliable and prone to breaking (I think that idea may have come form the play-station gloves). We ended up using a slider mounted on the glove for the telescoping part of the robot arm and an encoder for the rotating part. As you bend your arm (at the elbow) the arm lifts up, straight driver arm = robot arm down, and completely bet driver arm = robot arm all the way up. The prototype was made from a multi-jointed desk-lamp, and later simplified and steam lined.

Before the wearable controls were finished we had to test the arm with a joystick, it was a pain and the wearable controls make working the arm easy.

We will be at championship in the Archimedes division, feel free to come check us out. Matt can give you a more thorough explanation, I only know the basics.

Lindsey

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

That was a issue we worked out at our first regional. Matt puts on the controls before the match, during auto mode the controls aren't plugged in to the controller. After auto ends he steps up and plugs the controls in. Another complication is our coach not being able to touch the controls, he cant touch Matt either.

Lindsey

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

that is awesome! how long did it take to make that?

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

I don't really know, no one kept track. I'd guess Matt started working on the design part way into build and was done by week five, it wasn't the only thing he worked on though.

Lindsey

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

Incredible, its always great to see people pushing the limits like that!

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

very innovative idea. But i'm curious, how effective is it, as opposed to say using a model of an arm with pots on it like some teams, or just using the standard joystick? Any problems or regrets? or is everything about it awesome?

Re: pic: Team 548's Arm Controls
 

It works extremely well, we've been to finals at Great Lakes & Boilermaker and haven't had any problems with the controls. This is the first time our team has done something special for controls, previously we've just had switches & joysticks. I'd say its better than a mini-arm for visual & reaction. You want the arm up, just lift up your arm vs. a mini-arm would be hard to telescope and rotate one thing and keep its position.

We had to use a joystick before the wearable controls were done and it was a nightmare trying to control the thing. When we're stacking you can get familiar with the arm positions that work best and you just have to get your arm at that angle, with a joystick it's very hard to get back to the same spot. I'd say the wearable controls are 100 times better than a joystick. We've never done anything with a mini-arm, but I think it would be awkward to handle and only a bit better than a joystick.

We haven't had any problems, everything has worked fine. Matt just can't get excited and wave his arms around, and we have to be careful not to bump into him while he's wearing the controls.

I'd say no regrets, the controls have been a neat feature that helps contribute to one heck of a robot.

Lindsey