Is anybody using the sensors?

[Jeremy L]

did anybody actually try to put these in their design or are you all just hoping to be able to grab/push/whatever the goal with perfect accuracy? my team isn't using them either...

[Brian Savitt]

Not us...
0 electronic help
100% human sight

Brian Team 56

[Wetzel]

I don't think we are using the sensors...but different members/subgroups of my team have 'special projects' with the names such as 'Project X' and 'Project XX' and the like, so I don't know....
But I belive that we are not planning on using them.

[bigqueue]

Originally posted by Jeremy L
did anybody actually try to put these in their design or are you all just hoping to be able to grab/push/whatever the goal with perfect accuracy? my team isn't using them either...

We prototyped a goal tracking device with some marginal success. It is based on a rotating mirror that reflects the sensor beam at a 90 degree angle between the reflecor and the sensor. (bouncing both ways) Kind of like a store bar code scanner....

It works well, and we were able to track three goals.....but only at a distance of about 15 feet!

We were going to use this system to "steer" the robot into the heart of the goal so that even if it were moving, we could automatically track it and mate our grabber with it.

Well, we were looking for more like 25 feet from the sensor, and we ran out of room on our robot for another sensor.

We currently do it by eye.....(but we willbe bringing our prototype rotating sensor to the regionals just to show it off)

-Quentin

[Skanker]

we aren't using it. It would be a GREAT idea, but it's just too hard to impliment... at least that was our team's consensus.

good luck to anyone willing to try it.

[Jeff Waegelin]

I think that in the grand scheme of things, the sensors are somewhat of a red herring. They don't seem very useful when you really think about it, but they can be very distracting and tempting at first, as well as a waste of time.

This is not to say they are totally useless, however. If they could be made to work well, they could be a fine asset. I also think they could be like the Gyrochip. While they are not very important this year, like the gyro, they could play a much more important role in future years.

[Katie Reynolds]

Yep, yep... we will be using the sensors We'll see (no pun intended) how they'll work on our robot... which should be driving and fully functional by midweek

- Katie

[Jon Lawton]

I don't know if anyone has thought of this before, but, the sensors don't have to be used to see the retroreflectors, right? As long as they are perpendicular to a reflective surface, they will work. SO... why not use them keep track of wheel speed? Or positions of rotating pneumatic shafts? Or anything else you can make two colors...

[Warren Boudreau]

Not having any retroreflective tape at our disposal during the prototyping phase, we had to rule out the sensors for driving. At our speed, it was going to be a challenge anyway.

We might find a use for them before the 19th.

[Wetzel]

We STILL havn't gotten the sparklely tape yet...

[Curtis Williams]

Time allowing, I would like to use the optical sensors to measure the speed of the robot. I plan to put a little white paint on the surface behind the wheel so that the sensor goes off when a spoke passes. A laptop connected to the dashboard port will calculate the speed. My plan is to then have the laptop say "STALL STALL STALL" when the operator is putting power to the motors but not going anywhere. Maybe even have the RC cut power to the motors if the wheels dont move for a few seconds. Hopefully this will prevent overstressing the motors or blowing a fuse.

We are also using a pair of limit switches to tell when we are lined up and touching the goal. Another use for limit switches is detecting falure of a device like a hook that you cant see.

[Cody_538]

My team has made a sensor program that will scan for the retro-reflective tape on the large pipe in the center of the goal. We have 2 sensors on two servos,a left and right, that scan inward. We got the program to where if the left sensor has a goal and right sensor didn't then the robot will turn left a specified amount to line the bot up with the goal. we ae thinking about a third sensor, also know as middle sensor, to tell us that we are perfectly dead center with a goal. Has anyone else tried something like this with their sensors? If so please do reply.

Also soon enough we will be showing off our robot (The Black Knight II) which all I can tell you is that the robot can push or pull 1 ton of rolling weight on concrete flooring.

Cody, Team 538 "The DragonSlayers"

[CaptainPlaid]

I think the sensors would be far more useful for a ball handling (throwing) robot than they would be for a goal handler. If you have decent drivers and a suburb claw then you should not need to be perfectly aligned.

[Tom Fairchild]

The balls seem to be pretty glossy....... I wonder if the sensor can detect them.......

~Tom Fairchild~, who will say no more.

[Wetzel]

Not after a few rounds of being thrown they wont be.