More Finesse as a Driver

[Lij2015]

I was driver during 2014 like you and was super aggressive and loved to play defense.

I think however what toned me down is our team's robot this year only goes like 5 feet a second in low gear whichiis its default. That kinda forced me to drive with more finesse.

Make one of the triggers on the gamepad reduce the speed by 40 percent when held if you don't have a shifting drive train.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by cjster

Any suggestions on how I can have more finesse as a robot driver?

It's like how you get to Carnegie hall. Practice, practice, practice.

[Samwaldo]

Last year as driver I drove with two joysticks in a tank drive configuration (hands near the base of the controller) AND then i added a 3D printed pedal that i wired that when pushed the speed would become ~40% of what the controllers said.

[MrForbes]

There are several things you can do to make it easier to drive. The code can be changed to make the joystick controls exponential (multiply the joystick value times the absolute value of itself). how is the controller set up? steering on one stick, throttle on the other, to make it "split arcade" seems to be more controllable than tank or arcade drive. And you can try an alternate type of controller, such as an RC car control with a small steering wheel and throttle trigger, wired into the guts of a normal USB controller. Also the robot drivetrain design has a lot to do with it, as well as the gear ratios. I've seen a few excellent teams using only one CIM per side on the robot drive this year. Omni wheels are pretty forgiving when turning the robot just a little bit.

We got lucky this year, our driver has fantastic control over the robot...and he sure needed it.

[pmangels17]

I know it's been said, but above all, try switching to regular joysticks, and grip them at the base. I've driven robots with both styles, though the xox controller robots were at college, not FIRST bots, but as someone who has used both, I'd say traditional joysticks are leaps and bounds more accurate for precision driving. At least give it a try, you may like what you find.

[cjster]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

There are several things you can do to make it easier to drive. The code can be changed to make the joystick controls exponential (multiply the joystick value times the absolute value of itself). how is the controller set up? steering on one stick, throttle on the other, to make it "split arcade" seems to be more controllable than tank or arcade drive. And you can try an alternate type of controller, such as an RC car control with a small steering wheel and throttle trigger, wired into the guts of a normal USB controller. Also the robot drivetrain design has a lot to do with it, as well as the gear ratios. I've seen a few excellent teams using only one CIM per side on the robot drive this year. Omni wheels are pretty forgiving when turning the robot just a little bit.

We got lucky this year, our driver has fantastic control over the robot...and he sure needed it.

We have mecanum wheels and one motor per wheel, 4 wheels. The throttle and strafing is the same stick and turning the robot is the other stick.

[MrForbes]

842 was having similar troubles. Maybe they will chime in

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by cjster

We have mecanum wheels and one motor per wheel, 4 wheels. The throttle and strafing is the same stick and turning the robot is the other stick.

I would recommend scaling down the default mecanum turn rate in the code. I found that multiplying the rotation value by 0.4 worked for us. Anything more had us accidentally throwing totes. It increases your robot's stability by a lot without reducing your overall mobility. Also, if you don't use field-oriented drive, it will help a lot to simplify driving so you can better focus on being precise.

[Anthony Galea]

Originally Posted by Whippet

I would recommend scaling down the default mecanum turn rate in the code. I found that multiplying the rotation value by 0.4 worked for us. Anything more had us accidentally throwing totes. It increases your robot's stability by a lot without reducing your overall mobility.

Are we the same team?

In all seriousness, we had our programmer do exactly this after the Center Line quarterfinals, where turning from the feeder station would fling totes everywhere, and because of this change, during Windsor (our next event), the only times we lost a stack while driving was if the stack was already incredibly unstable.

For reference, for chassis driving we are using Logitech F310 game pads. Our driver found it much easier to drive mecanum than the Attack 3D Pro, because the twist axis would give unintended values when trying to simply drive forward or strafe.

[IronicDeadBird]

The two current games I have for fine motor control both are available on steam and don't break the bank too much.
1. Geometry Wars 3D
2. Waves
Things you can do with the xbox controller. Buy or print control freaks/joystick extensions for a controller. It feels weird at first but the longer the thumb stick the more control you have over it.

[cjster]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

The two current games I have for fine motor control both are available on steam and don't break the bank too much.
1. Geometry Wars 3D
2. Waves
Things you can do with the xbox controller. Buy or print control freaks/joystick extensions for a controller. It feels weird at first but the longer the thumb stick the more control you have over it.

I've been thinking of buying control freaks for my Xbox at home. Is it against FIRST rules to attach them to a driver's station controller?

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by cjster

I've been thinking of buying control freaks for my Xbox at home. Is it against FIRST rules to attach them to a driver's station controller?

Not much regulation on what can be put on the driver station.
Question 155
Q. Do motors that are connected with the Operator console need to follow all rules that apply to motors mounted on the robot?
FRC1339 on 2015-01-13 | 3 Followers
A. No, there are no rules that explicitly legislate motors used in the OPERATOR CONSOLE, however please consider T1 and make sure that the implementation doesn't pose risk to people.

This was prompted in response to wondering if you could add kinetic feedback to driver station controllers through motors.

[cjster]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Question 155
Q. Do motors that are connected with the Operator console need to follow all rules that apply to motors mounted on the robot?
FRC1339 on 2015-01-13 | 3 Followers
A. No, there are no rules that explicitly legislate motors used in the OPERATOR CONSOLE, however please consider T1 and make sure that the implementation doesn't pose risk to people.

This was prompted in response to wondering if you could add kinetic feedback to driver station controllers through motors.

So, to make it clear, I can? Thanks! I think you may have solved my problem once and for all. I'll also try those two games.

[zinthorne]

Have a slow gearing of your robot. I was a very aggressive driver last year and so this year came as a big change. I think the greatest thing I learned is "Drive slower to go faster." I tried going as fast as I can and i would dump stacks or make stupid mistakes. Practice, Practice, Practice! We had the opportunity to go to three district events this year and then district championships. As i got more practice things got much easier. The first two events I was 50-75% on our stacks. In the third It went well other than dropping two stacks of 6 in the same match In PNW championship we were 100% dropping no stacks. (This is excluding the match where a few zip ties were cut and our tower fell not letting us be able to stack)

I would also say to develop a routine. If you watch our playoff matches I did almost the same exact movements every match. This helps me to keep my nerves down and know the speed I have to go and have confidence that i do not have to rush. Since this years game is generally the same thing every match for a team, building a routine of the movements that you make can help with finesse a lot!

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

It's like how you get to Carnegie hall. Practice, practice, practice.

Here's a good example: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=94981