[TedP]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Ted has a good point - if you end up hitting something, or another bot is pushing you backwards, you wheels will either be slipping (spinning) or turning backwards or both

Well, and what I was trying to also say was that depending on your robot's gearing, it's probably very difficult to push the robots backwards any significant amount, ESPECIALLY if their motors are driving. I'd be more willing to believe wheels slip or spin rather than run backwards. When a motor wants to drive forwards and you drive it backwards instead, it's not good for the motor nor the source of power to the motor.

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

but either way, you are already lost - so you might as well assume you are going in the direction you set your motors to. once your wheels slip your position based on wheel turns is useless.

Well, even if your position is useless, the rate of change is still useful. In fact, sometimes the thing to do when your wheels slip is to reduce your speed until you start catching on carpet again. Sometimes having some feedback control controlling your speed is a good way to do that.

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

and if you are using wheel rotation to close the loop on motor speed, buy the time your wheels end up being pushed backwards your PID loop would have them at full power forwards anyway

And again, motors in full power forward while wheels are going backwards is no good for anyone. "back EMF" becomes "forward EMF"... or something.

So, yeah, to reiterate, I don't think quadrature encoders really provide much advantage. Get your ticks, fudge your direction, and you'll do just as good as any.

Now, if you have other mechanisms besides drive train that might be driven backwards (perhaps you're using something as input that is fairly free to rotate... etc.) then the quadrature makes a lot of sense. But for drive train for most of these robots, it's probably not all that helpful.