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Unread 03-04-2007, 15:38
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Tom Line Tom Line is offline
Raptors can't turn doorknobs.
FRC #1718 (The Fighting Pi)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Rookie Year: 1999
Location: Armada, Michigan
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Re: Simple dead-reckoning autonomous

I have to wonder. How many teams complaining that their camera was having trouble finding the light were trying to:

1. Find the light from the starting position.
2. Find the light while moving.

We noticed early on that tracking the light while the robot was moving at a decent speed, or even finding the light from the starting position was generally problematic.

We solved it by driving up to about 6 feet away then stopping and getting a single fix from the camera. We forced the camera to only search across 1 tilt level and had it on a vastly increase pan-speed.

That single fix gave us both the amount we needed to turn, and the distance we had to travel to score.

Early on, we actually did it in two steps - we turned first then got our second fix to get the distance. It was slightly more accurate (1-2 inches) than geting the distance then turning - but we need to speed it up to avoid the defense in West Michigan.