Drivers Control

[Walter Deitzler]

Originally Posted by raphaelchang

Starting in 2013, 846 has a been using a steering wheel for turning and a joystick for throttle. Having the turn and throttle components on separate controls allows us to drive straight and turn in place more easily, and it also allows better control of arc turning (turning while driving forwards/backwards).

We found this as the optimal driving scheme after experimenting with several other setups as well:
2011-2012 - Single joystick for forward and turn, forward and back motion for throttle, joystick twist for turn. This made arc turning difficult because both motions were controlled with one hand. Turning in general was also difficult because the twist was more sensitive and turning with the wrist was more difficult to control precisely.
Off-season - We also tried two other setups during off-season, tank drive and vector drive. Tank drive used two joysticks, one to control the left side and one to control the right side. This made the driving feel more natural, but it also made precise control difficult. Driving straight was difficult and precise turning speed was hard to control. Vector drive used the angle of the joystick to specify the direction of the robot and the magnitude to control the speed. The robot would turn automatically to face the angle pointed by the joystick and move forward at that speed. Although this field-centric setup made it easier to go the direction we wanted, it was difficult to control for tight manipulations.

Any chance you could post the model of steering wheel?

[raphaelchang]

We use a Ferrari GT Racing Wheel for our steering wheel. It can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000U1MU2K/sr=1-1/qid=1357360819/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1357360819 &seller=&sr=1-1

[Gabrielle62]

For the past few year 2994 has used 1 or 2 logitech joysticks depending on if the driver preferred tank or arcade drive and then a logitech gamepad for everything else (this year the mini joysticks for rotating the arm and the buttons for shooting, and last year the same buttons for shooting).

[robowrestler]

2011- cyborgx joystick arcade drive style on a west coast drive

2010/2012- cyborgx joystick on a mechanum drive also arcade style

2013- xbox controller with an arcade style drive on the a modified kit bot chassis

my favorite was the xbox controller it was a lot more comfortable to drive with and the co-driver also had one controlling the shooter

[ErvinI]

From what I know, which may not be correct outside of 2012 and 2013:

Main Driver:

• 2010: One Joystick. Either Attack 3 or Attack 3D. Arcade Drive variant where rotation was done through two buttons on top of the joystick (our programmer was new that year ).
• 2011: Tank Drive with two Attack 3 Joysticks.
• 2012: Tank Drive with two Attack 3 Joysticks.
• 2013: Tank Drive with two Attack 3 Joysticks (I see a pattern here...)

Driver preference tends to be key. Our drivers have often times preferred tank drive over Arcade/ Kaj Drive because they like the ability to reduce the power going to one wheel independently from the other wheel. For some drivers this is difficult to master, however it works great for precision steering if trained properly.

[Iaquinto.Joe]

2011: We used 1 Logitech controller for arcade drive, and a custom board for positioning the arm. It had a "Mini me" version of our arm with potentiometers and correct arm segment lengths that we used for custom positioning. It also had buttons in a layout for the drivers to press, along with sweep and station, and "Barf and flip", which was used for clearing the tubes.

2012: 1 xbox controller for octocanum control. Also controlled bride manipulator. 1 logitech for turret, intake, and firing control.

2013: 1 flight controller, 1 logitech. The flight controller had a constant rate throttle, and an arcade joystick for turning. Also controlled hanging. Logitech controlled all disk handling and lateral aiming, in addition to firing.

[alex.lew]

We have used a Logitech joystick for arcade drive for the past two years, our driver preferred that over 2 joysticks for tank. We use the eStop Robotics Custom Control Interface (CCI) as a button board. It opens as another joystick in code and is very easy to set up and maintain, total cost of only $40. You can add pretty much any button / potentiometer / switch you want. We had a "big red FIRE button" to control our shooter and was directly cited in our Quality Award at Razorback Regional.
Plus it's really fun to show kids at demos

[z_beeblebrox]

This year, we used the circuit board from a Logitech gamepad to run a modified pistol-grip RC car controller for the driver and a custom control box for the operator.

This system worked very well for letting the drivers control the robot, but we had some trouble with the gamepad electronics, since they're really designed to control a gamepad and nothing else. Next year, we'll probably use the pistol grip controller again, but with something like the eStop Custom Control Interface instead.

[cbale2000]

From what I can remember from my time on my team, we've used these control setups for driving our robots...

• 2006: Tank Drive - 2 Joysticks (the old, black Flight Stick controllers) for driving, plus one custom 4-button control box for switching between collection/shooting modes.
• 2007-2008: Tank Drive - 2 FS Joysticks for driving, plus 2 additional joysticks for other robot functions.
• 2009-2010: Tank Drive - 2 Logitech Attack 3 Joysticks for driving,
• 2011: Tank Drive - 1 Logitech (PS3) Gamepad for driving, modified NES controller for the robots arm (Robot was reprogrammed after the season to require only the one Logitech Gamepad to control all functions, minus gear shifting, which was disabled).
• 2012-2013: Tank Drive - 1 Logitech (PS3) Gamepad for driving and other functions, no other controllers.

Having been a robot driver from 2006-2008, and, as a mentor, having also been able to occasionally drive every robot since then, I must say I'm still partial to older dual-joystick controls. You just don't seem to get the same resolution in the controls with the newer gamepads like you did with those old Flight Sticks. But that's my 2 cents at least.

[Oak1477]

This year our team used a modified rc controller for the driving aspect and for the shooting we used an xbox 360 controller.

The rc remote was Spektrum dx2e that we gutted (except for the power switch and the potentiometers) and put an Arduino uno in that we porgrammed to act as a logitech joystick.

Our team lets the drivers choose the controller they want to use. We believe if the driver is comfortable with the controller they will perform better.

[Racer26]

Us FRC old-timers remember the old black Flightsticks (with just a trigger and top button) that were replaced in the KOP in 2004 by the crappy beige joysticks in the kit from 2004-2008.

MANY teams continued using the far superior black Flightsticks until they were completely dead, especially for controlling the drivebase with. Some teams modified them to add extra buttons, or different handles. It was an interesting time.

In 2009, most teams used the Logitech joysticks we know and love today.