Autonomous: CMUCam or dead reckoning?

[miketwalker]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

wouldn't it be better to place two accelerometers 90 degrees from each other to gauge hits?

I spent 4.5 weeks trying to get those accelerometers to work in a positioning system (I used 2 of them just like you're saying)... 3 days before ship I gave up. A) They're so sensitive and need to be so precise that it's hard to mount
B) The way it's values come back, it is majorly biased and doesn't measure rates equally on positive and negative because of wire resistance.

It's too much work imho.

Originally Posted by Cody C

Also, could you describe to us what we would have to put in our programming to get the CMUCam to judge depth?

Pretty much what I'm doing (since I had to abandon the positioning system like I said above) to judge distances from tetras and goals... is using simple math to find how far away the tetra is. Think of depth... when an object is closer to you, it's bigger... further away smaller. So, in using the camera I just use the width to know the tetra is where I want it to be to pick up by doing a simple math calculation (cam.x2 - cam.x1), and you have to test with the bot and put it where you want it to be for picking it up and plug in the number. (If you are confused what cam.x2 and cam.x1 are, refer to the Start Here manual on pages 20 and 22). Then make sure your cam.x (the center of mass) is in the center of your view so you know your lined up with the tetra. Then, do the same with the yellow piece in the goal. Does that make sense? You'll have to play with it on the practice field, but it can be done.