Camera to motor setup

[Windward]

We got the camera to track the green, but now we've got another problem.


We've hooked up the servos on the camera directly to two motors so the camera tells the motors what to do. However, when the camera sees it, it sets the motor running in one direction and doesn't stop it. How are some of the other teams doing this? Are you guys modifying the code sent to the motors or will this setup work?

[devicenull]

Servo values don't directly translate to motor values.
A servo value of say 175 could be off to the left or right of center. In terms of a motor, it is forward.

You need some translating code in there

[Jared Russell]

Servos are position-commanded. A pwm value of 127 is center, 0 is one extreme, 254 is another.

Motors are velocity-commanded. Pwm 127 is neutral, 0 is full reverse, 254 is full forward.

You have to translate between the two. Using an encoder or pot and a feedback loop is one way.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Abwehr

Servos are position-commanded. A pwm value of 127 is center, 0 is one extreme, 254 is another.

Motors are velocity-commanded. Pwm 127 is neutral, 0 is full reverse, 254 is full forward.

You have to translate between the two. Using an encoder or pot and a feedback loop is one way.

Better yet.. read back the "wanted" pan servo rate from the camera, convert that into an angle relative to the bot in radians, and either

a) Turn the bot until the pan servo reads 127 (0 degrees)

b) Use a gyro (It would be a shame if a team skimped out on using one of these, seeing as we got a pretty nice one in the kit!) and turn to the calculated angle.

c) Use a combination of both: Lock onto the target.. get the relative angle.. turn UBER fast using the gyro to slow down.. and reposition yourself by using choice A.

[SteveO]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Better yet.. read back the "wanted" pan servo rate from the camera, convert that into an angle relative to the bot in radians, and either

a) Turn the bot until the pan servo reads 127 (0 degrees)

b) Use a gyro (It would be a shame if a team skimped out on using one of these, seeing as we got a pretty nice one in the kit!) and turn to the calculated angle.

c) Use a combination of both: Lock onto the target.. get the relative angle.. turn UBER fast using the gyro to slow down.. and reposition yourself by using choice A.

For some reason I am thinking I heard that 150 was the center value for the servos. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I am by no means a programmer, but with no encoders/gyros/etc. whatsoever (method A you are referring to) is it not possible to write some code kinda like this:

if(pwm01 > 155) //giving kind of an error range of 5
{
	 pwmX = 157; //or some value that isn't terribly fast
}

if(pwm01 < 145)
{
	pwmX = 97;
}


if(pwm02 > 155)
{
	 pwmY = 157;
}


if(pwm02 < 145)
{
	 pwmY = 97;
}

Assuming pwmX is your pan and pwmY is tilt for your "aiming" motors, 150 is the actual center value for they servos, and I don't know if there are some default variables for the pan and tilt servo values (I just thought they were pwm 1 and 2). Probably pretty inefficient code, but that basic idea?

[iBheat]

The true center value for a servo is 127 but in Kevin's code he defines them in tracking.h!

[Jon236]

There are 2 solutions available using proportional control if you are either

1) steering a gun turret using the pan and tilt output from the camera data packet; or
2) slaving the turret in the x-plane by fixing the camera to it

First, if you are using an optical encoder to measure the rotation of the turret and Tmid is the midpoint measurement of the turret and Cmid is the midpoint servo output for panning, then once the camera finds the target,
the desired turret position, or turret_dx, is given by Tmid*(1+((pan/Cmid)-1)). If we set error_x = turret_dx-OE, then the pwm output to the motor powering the turret is 127-Kp*error_x, where Kp is a proportionality constant.

Second, if the camera is afixed to the turret in the x-plane, then the error is simply Cmid-pan. The pwm output is then 127+Kp*error_x.

You can refine these equations to make a PID controller if needed. The math should be optimized for integer math by multiplying and dividing by 100 to avoid truncation error.

Post your own solutions!

Jon Mittelman
Team236 Programming Mentor

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by iBheat

The true center value for a servo is 127 but in Kevin's code he defines them in tracking.h!

The values in tracking.h define the calibrated servo PWM values when the camera is centered (i.e., pan and tilt angles of zero degrees).

-Kevin

[Jon236]

so

pan ceter is 124
tilt center is 144

right, Kevin?

Jon

[Windward]

This is the basic outline that I came up with, where the camera is mounted on the cannon.

// pwm1 = Camera Pan
// pwm2 = Camera Tilt
// pwm5 = cannon Pan
// pwm6 = cannon Tilt

if CamPanLeft
turn cannon right
if CamPanRight
turn cannon left
if CamTiltUp
rotate cannon down
if CamTiltDown
rotate cannon up

Also when a pwm > 125 is the motor/servo turning to the right or the left. Once I know that I can write more specific code.

Does the pan & tilt center change when you change the degrees of panning & tilting?

[iBheat]

Originally Posted by Kevin Watson

The values in tracking.h define the calibrated servo PWM values when the camera is centered (i.e., pan and tilt angles of zero degrees).

-Kevin

Yeah that is what I meant.

[Validius]

Kevin: Would you recomend fixing the camera to the turret and slaving the pan (and a factoring in the tilt assuming the turret can tilt)? I am not an exrteemly versed programmer but i know i could pull it off. As is i figured that i would just keep them independant.

Also: is the confidance rating of the camera a good relfection of magnitude in the vector to the light (after all, vectors have direction & magnitude!). I could perhaps use this to throttle the shooter's wheels.

[Windward]

Acutally, I was thinking of mounting the camera on top of the turret, and setting up the motors so that it would automatically swing the turret until the camera reads 0 pan and 0 tilt without any code modification. Would that work?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Windward

Acutally, I was thinking of mounting the camera on top of the turret, and setting up the motors so that it would automatically swing the turret until the camera reads 0 pan and 0 tilt without any code modification. Would that work?

It should, but you need to recognize something that might make it work less well than you expect. The camera code doesn't move the tilt or pan servos until the vision target gets "far enough" from the center of the view.

[devicenull]

Originally Posted by Windward

Acutally, I was thinking of mounting the camera on top of the turret, and setting up the motors so that it would automatically swing the turret until the camera reads 0 pan and 0 tilt without any code modification. Would that work?

If you mean 127 pan and 127 tilt, then yes, it works very, very nicely