Driving control scheme?
 

I am currently debating what type of drive control scheme to use. I am pushing for a system where one joystick controls the two right wheels the other controls the left side. They are pushing for one to control speed and one to control the turning. I just wanted to see what you guys think. We are a rookie team and I am the only one that has ever done first so im trying to convince them that my idea is the best. Any thoughts?

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

Generally, ours had tank drive. Manipulator controls wer generally deployment on one joystick and retraction on the other. One year there were controls in a box in the middle.

To each is their own.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

unless you are using omni wheels to do tranlational drive then one joystick for the left and one for the right is best it requires the least work and code. THe majority of teams you will see will have this configuration.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

Tank drive (having one joystick control each side) is the most popular system in FIRST. It's simple, the driver practically doesn't have to think (well, he does, but it's more intuitive.) Having one control speed and the other turning--just use a steering wheel if you can find one that interfaces with the RC; or just use one joystick. The problem with this system is it's very hard to turn fast, unlike two sticks. If you must use an x and y system, use one stick, but two joysticks is preferred.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

We always used 2 joystick tank drive up until last year, when we switched over to using one joystick for both speed and turning. The 2 joystick tank drive is considerably easier to program, but the one joystick was alot easier for anyone on the team to simply turn the robot on and drive it (I don't know how much easier it was for the experienced competition drivers, but it worked better for just the random member). We will be using one joystick for both again this year.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

1293 has always used one joystick. I don't know why exactly (probably because we started out with only two joysticks back in the old days).

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

One joystick for left and one for right but those are thumb joysticks on our PS2 controller. :cool:

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

Our team uses tank drive for the most part, but just try both, let your driver(s) play with it, and see what they prefer.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

We've always been a one joystick team.

I don't get why two are more popular - there is no combination of left and right speeds that a single stick can't produce, and it leaves the other hand free for other things (as well as being more intuitive IMO).

And it's not like it's harder to program - it's in the default code!

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

They didn't do that until last year. But yes, now they give it to us (I think that may have been one of the big reasons we did switch over to it last year...).

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

We have "Halo Drive" (as coined by me for our team). We have the same control scheme as in Halo, left joystick is left, right, forward, and back, while keeping the same heading, and the right joystick controls rotation. And it drives soo heavenly and smooth, a nice change over our overly frictionated (cool word) tank drive from last year. Its the most maneuverable little chassis I've ever personally seen.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

Team 435 : we have always used one controler, in the begining we had to intergrade the two controles in to one controler which was a pain in setting up the condinate system of the joystick. but now we can spend time on other things b/c the code is given to us for one joystick to control both driving wheels left and right

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

That font is very, very hard to read.


We use tank.. I wouldn't have it any other way.. It is by far the best, as far as I can tell (Try to do this with a single joystick: Go forward, spin around one of the back wheels to 180, and go straight forward) ;)

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

This is interesting. Way more teams voting for two joysticks than one.

The one joystick really isn't that much harder to program. I worked it out on paper in about 15 minutes then typed that straight into the computer. I spent about 30 minutes (that is, 30 minutes of actually working) debugging it when the tracks on the bot kept randomly reversing/ignoring dead bands/spinning the same way.

Our team still has to make some motor linearization code and tweak the code but for the most part it's done.

I think that one joystick is easier to control and leaves the operator's other hand free for a possible second joystick/panel for weapons control. We learned last year that it's best not to have two drivers. That's very hard to coordinate correctly sometimes.

Re: Driving control scheme?
 

I really perfer 2 joystick tankdrive because it gives you absolute control of the robot, you can control either side of you your drivetrain at any speed you want any time you want. However I do think that 1 joystick would be easier for people that havnt ever driven a robot before.