Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku
What you could do is use optical encoders with optical encoder wheels on two kinds of wheels -- driven and not -- then take the data from both
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Absolutely, but at this time we are planning on six driven wheels and none undriven. I mentiojned that in the intiial post: "but in a robot, usually there is no undriven wheel."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blair Frank
What about using analog current sensors? Would that work, and provide the same functionality as the CAN interface?
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Good idea Blair - you'd need to compare the measured current AND voltage and then compare it to what was being commanded to the Jaguar (i.e., the PWM value), but this may be simpler in some cases than using wheel encoders - and probably a lot less expensive as well.
Why not just current? Because motor output is not directly proportional to only current if the robot can be acted upon by external forces - like a robot slamming into you. The current should remain the same for a given wheel speed so long as you are slipping above a certain factor, but get below that slip threshold and it gets nonlinear. Measure power (Power = current * voltage) and you can be sure all the time.