2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Qk2YPdCY8

Hi All,

So, here's are preliminary traction control demo. Don't mind the flooring or the two very dillusional people muttering away.:ahh:

Cheers,
M_M and JNo.

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

That's pretty neat. Quite cool.

How are you guys detecting a loss of traction? Encoders are my only guess...

-Tanner

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Yep, there's an encoder in the system. Actually there's two, and some secret sauce.

It's amazing how 2 years of kinematics can actually be applied to real life.

And no, there's no accelerometers, or idle wheels.

M_M

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Wow, very amazing guys. I'm not even sure how we would do that...

Thumbs up to ya'll! Good luck with it.

-Tanner

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Thanks!
You too.

M_M

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

That's sick.

Someone deserves a high five.

*High Five*

Care to elaborate on the mechanics and the programming theory behind it?

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Already Done.

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Helloooo from the North East:D
Oh Boy that is a great job........ DRIVE the bot and lots of great times will be ahead for your Team ...:yikes:
GOOD LUCK in 2009;)
MOE and Team 88 TJ2 TYE DYE for ever oh yeah ???? OH YEAH !!!!:o

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Well, I'd love to tell you all exactly how this was pulled off, but I'm honestly not sure how much detail I"m allowed to reveal. (We haven't had a discussion with the team about this yet, so I don't want to jump the gun.)

Here's what I can tell you though:
- We use two encoders, one per side, in addition to another type of sensor.
- We found the accelerometers WAY too noisey, especially with the bumpy playing surface.
- All four (well, 3 and a bit wheels) are driven, we have no idlers.
- Haven't worked out (unfortunately) how to implement any type of optical sensor to figure out linear velocity. [I'm convinced those new-fangled "gamer mouses" would work, but we don't have the $$$ to test this theory.]

That video is no where near the final product btw. We have to calibrate and optimize for the playing surface and the weight of the trainer.

Anyway, I'll tell you what I can. Please feel free to ask quesitons. If anyone can guess what we did I'd be happy to PM you with our solution. It can be a game of sorts.
BUT, I'll probably have a white paper drawn out by our first regional (Toronto) and it'll be posted for all to see.

M_M

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

I'm glad to hear that you won't be littering the field with wheel spinach. I don't think the Swifter would be much help in cleaning up that kind of mess!

Seriously, that looks like a really good traction control system. From the demo it looks like the robot is a lot easier to push around with the system turned off. Is that true?

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Great Job Team!!

Very Impressive

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

This is the most efficient and incredible traction control system our team has ever seen. We would like to use the encoder as well to assist in our traction control. Can you help us?

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

Sure, what do you want to know?

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

wow guys well done...

Is there any way you guys can share that and help us out?

Re: 2809 - Traction Control Demo
 

We would like to use the encoder to measure the rotations of the wheel per second then multiply by the radius of the wheel in order to find the distance the wheel should be traveling (theoretical distance). Then we would use another sensor to measure the distance our robot has actually traveled. If the actual distance is less than the theoretical distance our wheel is slipping. Do you have any suggestions on the sensor we should use to measure the actual distance traveled or any suggested code we could use in order for the change in speed of the motor, in turn lowering or speeding up the rev/sec., to be automatic?