[AWoL]

Originally Posted by nstephenh

Encoders aren't going to work with rough terrain/rock wall/ramparts/moat unless you have a robot with treads that goes over them slowly like a tank because you lose contact with the ground and have a free-spinning wheel that's still counting up inches.

Have you tried them? With the fairly-standard drive train we're running this year (we haven't revealed yet, so can't say much) I'm doing motion control over the defenses with encoders and that's been working fine; I have not seen any egregious loss of telemetry on the defenses.

Originally Posted by Abrakadabra

But most teams have all wheels on a side driven by the same axle either via chains or belts, right? So unless you have independently-driven wheels (with an encoder on only one of them) or unless you catch a lot of air during your crossing, chances are that the encoder readings will be reasonably accurate. Not perfect, but good enough.

Precisely.

Originally Posted by kmodos

We have wheels connected by gears yet still have incorrect encoder readings due to slippage. Encoders are far from perfect. There are many other sensors you can use instead.

What other sensors are you going to use to easily get distance information?