to those of you expecting to see this in action at DC tomorrow:
-we tested the steering code and it works perfectly when propped up on blocks
however...(yes there is a however)-
today was the first time programming team had a chance to test out how the robot would perform with perfect steering code on the carpet, well there is a small design problem that is keeping the wheels too loose. if you look in the picture where it says LF, on the right hand side, that is part of the thing that controls how our wheels steer, it slides up and down the shaft in the middle to create the angle for the wheels, well the length of that middle section in the z-direction for the photo, (if left and right is x, up and down y, and forward and back within the picture is z), is too short, by being too short this creates a situation similar to a see saw. if you had a 2 fulcrum see saw with both fulcrums exactly in the middle, you would get a lot of movement on both sides, if you moved the fulcrums towards opposites sides, you would eventually get to no movement when you have both fulcrums at opposite ends,
well right now our see saw for the steering is about 33% and 66% the length of the see saw, and that is creating too much non-needed movement for the wheels, after the DC competition tomorrow we are going to fix that by extending the middle plate outwards to maximize the distance between our "fulcrums", this should solve our steering problem as of right now, also one more small design problem we noticed, if you look at the black circle on the left hand side middle, that piece attaches to another circular piece which is controlled by a motor to move the wheel component up and down the shaft to steer it, this is not a sprocket gear, but something else that i don't know the name to (haha, i am a programming not a design team member
), well that isn't working b/c in the simplest turns it is not a sprocket gear and does not have the advantages of being one, it slips too much
however to all of you that really seemed enthused with the design, don't worry, we have figured out all the problems with the steering, and although they won't be able to be corrected by tomorrow for the DC scrimmage, by richmand vcu and atlanta, which means by tuesday afternoon, they will be ready, and i hope (and am sure) will be very impressive, wish us luck in fixing this problem
talk to you next time...
~Programming Team 612