[Invictus3593]

The use of ac = (Vt2)/r and the other equations only apply if the robot is moving in a circle. I do not know the skill of your drivers, but most drivers I have seen do not drive in circles. The Vt refers to the velocity of the object tangential to the acceleration.

The wf = w0 + xt is similar to vf = v0 + at. It is the rotational velocity of a body under constant rotational acceleration. x is the rotational acceleration in radians/(s2).

In circular motion, velocity, acceleration, and position can be related to their rotational analogues by dividing by the radius.

Another interesting idea (that may be completely wrong) is to use a gyro with the forward position to create a set of vectors that might be used to find position in a polar system.

Haha, he gave the ac = (Vt2)/r equation to use in the case that we were turning, which would throw off our real location; I guarantee you I don't drive in circles! If we updated the rotational acceleration every 10ms and took the average acceleration for that period, do you think would this be a short enough interval to be able to plot location semi-accurately?

Originally Posted by Ether

Given t, x, y, v_x, v_y, a_x, and a_y at some point in time, and a_xnew a_ynew at some later point in time t_new^*,
compute v_xnew v_ynew x_new and y_new as follows:

dt = t_new - t;

v_xnew = v_x + dt*(a_xnew+a_x)/2;
x_new = x + dt*(v_xnew+v_x)/2;

v_ynew = v_y + dt*(a_ynew+a_y)/2;
y_new = y + dt*(v_ynew+v_y)/2;

...the errors will accumulate quickly and the computed position will diverge from the true position.

I apoligize for not acknowledging, my friend; I appreciate your input!

Using trapezoidal integration, would that eliminate the errors? Or is there anther way to do it without the problems you describe? I've read that with robotic probes that go into caves and such, they use this kind of plotting system, an accelerometer and a gyro..