Which controler for driving mecanum?

[sgosiaco]

Originally Posted by thinker&planner

Being the driver, and liking tank style, I requested that we control (not drive) our robot with tank-style controls. We used an Xbox controller and had the left-y control the left side forward/backwards and the right-y for the right side. The strafing was controlled by the triggers, which were analog on the controller that we used. If we do it again, I would use two joysticks in a tank formation and modify the triggers to be analog (or use the x-axis of one of them for strafing).

The trick was averaging in the strafing at the same time, which our amazing programmer had a true "Eureka!" moment when she figured it out. Her method provides a more "natural" way (if you naturally like tank-style controls) for mecanum the full mobility of mecanum still retained.

I'll try to find the algorithm and put it here soon.

If you could possibly post the code for that, that would be fantastic. I've been looking for a tank drive solution for mecanums and have yet to find code for a setup like it.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by sgosiaco

If you could possibly post the code for that, that would be fantastic. I've been looking for a tank drive solution for mecanums and have yet to find code for a setup like it.

Take a look at post#13 in this thread.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...4&postcount=13

Ask for further explanation if needed.

[sgosiaco]

Originally Posted by Ether

Take a look at post#13 in this thread.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...4&postcount=13

Ask for further explanation if needed.

Ah didn't notice that earlier. Thanks for the help! I post again if I need more help.

[chrisfl]

Our team has used an xbox controller for all of our functions with one driver since at least 2011. 3 of the years we used mecanum and we would have the left joystick/gamepad control forward-back and side-side sliding motion. We then would use the 2 triggers to control an angular turn around the center of our chassis. This was REALLY easy to use and I was able to drive like a pro my first time with the robot on the ground.

[matthewdenny]

We use 2 joysticks. One for each side of the robot like tank drive. However we use the sum of x axis as the strafe. To rotate you just have a difference in y axis.

We also have an option to divide both axis inputs from the joysticks by 2 to give more careful fine control when pressing the triggers.