Let's Talk About The Bridge:

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by ZehP

Last year our robot had a "finesse" mode, that literally slowed down the arm motors and the drive motors. I think a similar mode (that can simply be activated by a button on the joysticks or a toggle switch) could be highly beneficial when trying to just drive your robot to balance.

If your robot this year ends up with any kind of swinging chute or arm, then you could probably use that to effectively shift the center of gravity.

Personally, I want to take all the human aspects out of the balancing. The operators are facing them head on, not to the side of the board. So my plan is to get all the alliance members up and tell them to drop all controls so the software can do its work.

[KrazyCarl92]

What about placing an accelerometer on the robot that allows it to autonomously balance on the bridge? You could have it detect when you are unbalanced on the bridge then press a button that activates the auto-balance and drives to correct the imbalance. Just tell whomever you are balancing with that you have this auto-balancing feature and you have yourself 20 points or 10 points and a 2 point CP bonus as the case may be!

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92

What about placing an accelerometer on the robot that allows it to autonomously balance on the bridge? You could have it detect when you are unbalanced on the bridge then press a button that activates the auto-balance and drives to correct the imbalance. Just tell whomever you are balancing with that you have this auto-balancing feature and you have yourself 20 points or 10 points and a 2 point CP bonus as the case may be!

I was just thinking of going for 2 PID loops. One to actuate the platform to the right position and the second to find where to move the platform to. Personally, a gyroscope would be better. Since it gives us the angular velocity, I just integrate that over time and you get the net angle of the gyro.



edit: any legality on "latching" onto other robots? The "t-rex" arms to push the platform down can be used to latch onto robots.

[Ninja_Bait]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

edit: any legality on "latching" onto other robots? The "t-rex" arms to push the platform down can be used to latch onto robots.

Interesting question. G27 prevents you from doing it on the coopertition bridge:

Deliberate or damaging contact with an opponent Robot inside its Frame Perimeter is not allowed.

But not with your own alliance partners. Hmmm....

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Personally, I want to take all the human aspects out of the balancing. The operators are facing them head on, not to the side of the board. So my plan is to get all the alliance members up and tell them to drop all controls so the software can do its work.

Three robots operating on software to balance on a ramp in which they barely fit? Could work but you need all three to do that which will be extremely rare! It is almost like having a robot in 2010 that could hang off the tower and have two to hang off of it for bonus points. It only happened once all season and with two robots not all three.

[LinuxArchitect]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Personally, I want to take all the human aspects out of the balancing. The operators are facing them head on, not to the side of the board. So my plan is to get all the alliance members up and tell them to drop all controls so the software can do its work.

I don't follow... you're expecting each alliance partner to have such software and that it is compatible? That would be taking coopertition to a new level.