Programming swerve drive in Labview?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by autox_vette

I am an old school programmer, so I tend to be skeptical of the graphical nature of LabVIEW.

You would be wise to let go of your prejudice.

LabVIEW's graphical nature does not detract from its utility as a full-powered programming language. It actually makes it easier to avoid simple typing mistakes -- any problems with the program are typically due to errors in design, rather than silly things like misplaced semicolons. The real distinction is that LabVIEW is a dataflow language, and that trips up a lot of people who think they know what programming is. It turns out that much of what typical structured programming practice is based on relies on the accident of procedural programming having become prominent first. Back up a bit from the textual view of a program, focus on the inputs and outputs of a function instead of the step by step directions for doing everything in order, and it all becomes a lot more clear.

[Gdeaver]

To do continuous rotation, 4 wheel independent steering as 1640 has done for 3 years in Labview, one must embrace and understand the data flow mentality of Labview. If you bring your procedural habits to labview, swerve will present a problem. Happened in year 1 effort.

[jcbc]

I am hoping to have 1640's 2011 and 2012 swerve ("pivot") drive LabVIEW code published shortly. The code from 2011 was almost ready to go before the 2012 season started, but then I got lost in the build season and didn't follow through.