Setting Autonomous Settings from OI

[Tom Saxton]

Does anyone understand the details of how values from the OI are sent to the RC prior to and during autonomous?

Last year, we had our autonomous settings on the robot, and that was a big pain. At the end of the regional, we realized that were getting readings from the OI before and during autonomous, so we could move those switches and controls to the OI and just make sure they are set correctly before the match starts. (Obviously, we can't touch them during autonomous.)

This year, we have a custom control box on the OI with various LEDs, switches and one potentiometer, all running through the various ports and carefully laid out so as not to conflict with the pins that are duplicated on multiple ports.

Everything works great during tele-operation, and even when we're disabled via the competition port. However, during autonomous, some switches don't work. We have one switch (hooked into p1_sw_trig) that controls whether or not our blinking light decorations are enabled; it works great at all times except during autonomous.

Some other switches seemed to be having similar problems, so we changed our code to capture the switch values while disabled, then stop updating the values once autonomous starts.

Our main autonomous mode is determined by the value of a potentiometer hooked up to p1_x. Most of the time, this one works great, but sometimes it doesn't. Instead it will get "stuck" on an old value. The pot has detents, so there's no problem with finding the right position, and there's plenty of difference between positions. Also, it's not like the values drifted and we get a value near the setting we expect, instead we get a fixed value that doesn't change no matter where we turn the knob. When this has happened, the only reliable way to cure it is to reset both the OI and RC using the buttons on the OI.

Our procedure is to put the robot in manual and disabled, then switch to autonomous, then enable. We know that we don't get into the autonomous branch of the code until we are in both autonomous and enabled. Even if we capture the values before the "autonomous_mode" becomes true, we still get values that are always wrong on some switches and sometimes wrong on the pot.

Has anyone else seen this issue? Obviously, it's pretty embarrassing when your robot runs the wrong autonomous mode in front of five other teams and a large perceptive audience!

[Mr. Lim]

Tom,

This year is the first time we've done autonomous mode selection from the OI. I used code supplied by Travis Hoffman from Team 48 - Delphi Elite in the following post:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=34702

It is the third post down.

In a nutshell:

1) In autonomous mode, all the OI variables (p1_x, p1_sw_trig, etc) are reset to default values - 0 for switches, 127 for analog
2) In your tele-operated code (Default_Routines) add code to copy the OI variables you need into a set of static variables when you are NOT in autonomous mode
3) In your autonomous code, use the static variables you copied everything over to in step 2, to select your autonomous mode

The code in the link above from Travis should be enough to get you through. If you wish, you can contact "Embok" here on Chief Delphi. He was our programmer responsible for the OI autonomous selection code. He will be able to post our code and provide any help you may need.

-SlimBoJones...

[Tom Saxton]

Originally Posted by SlimBoJones

1) In autonomous mode, all the OI variables (p1_x, p1_sw_trig, etc) are reset to default values - 0 for switches, 127 for analog
2) In your tele-operated code (Default_Routines) add code to copy the OI variables you need into a set of static variables when you are NOT in autonomous mode
3) In your autonomous code, use the static variables you copied everything over to in step 2, to select your autonomous mode

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing, and it was still having problems.

[Mr. Lim]

Tom, post your code for when you are copying the OI variables to your static variables, and the code you are using to select your autonomous code from your static variables.

It might offer some more insight as to why you're seeing this behaviour.

-SlimBoJones...

[russell]

It seems like I saw a post about this earlier... You need to make sure that some setting on your OI is set correctly. Like you need to have it in user mode or something. Then just have it read all the variables the first time it runs the section where it processes data from the OI. That should work... But if it isnt then I dont know what to tell you..

[Dan9874123]

Our team has had switches for autonomous on our operator interface for years. The way this is done is you take the imput from your switch (multi-position, what-haveyou) and store it in a variable so it is not reset when you go into autonomous mode. This is the code we use this year to do that. We have 4 swithes on our OI, two 5 position for delay and variation choices. And a 6 position for position choice and another for program choice.

/*****************read program switches.c*********************/

#include "ifi_aliases.h"
#include "ifi_default.h"
#include "ifi_utilities.h"
#include "user_routines.h"
#include "printf_lib.h"



void check_program (void)
{
//extern unsigned char variation;
unsigned char delay_val;
unsigned char var_val;
unsigned char prog_val;
unsigned char posit_val;

extern unsigned char position_choice;
extern unsigned char auto_choice;
extern unsigned char variation_choice;
extern unsigned char delay;
prog_val=rxdata.oi_analog08;
var_val=rxdata.oi_analog12;
delay_val=rxdata.oi_analog16;
posit_val = rxdata.oi_analog04;


if (prog_val<10)
{
auto_choice = 2;
}
else if( prog_val >20 && prog_val < 30 )
{
auto_choice = 3;
}
else if( prog_val >70 && prog_val < 90 )
{
auto_choice = 4;
}
else if(prog_val >140 && prog_val < 160)
{
auto_choice = 5;
}
else if(prog_val >120 && prog_val < 130)
{
auto_choice = 1;
}
else if(prog_val>240)
{
auto_choice = 6;
}


if (var_val<10)
{
variation_choice = 2;
}
else if( var_val > 55 && var_val<70 )
{
variation_choice = 3;
}
else if(var_val > 140 && var_val<150)
{
variation_choice= 4;
}
else if(var_val > 200)
{
variation_choice = 5;
}
else if( var_val <135 && var_val>110)
{
variation_choice = 1;
}


if (delay_val<10)
{
delay = 2;
}
else if( delay_val > 55 && delay_val<70 )
{
delay = 3;
}
else if(delay_val > 140 && delay_val<150)
{
delay = 4;
}
else if(delay_val > 200)
{
delay = 5;
}
else if( delay_val <135 && delay_val>110)
{
delay = 1;
}
/*********Get Starting Position****************/
if (posit_val<10)
{
position_choice = 2;
}
else if( posit_val >20 && posit_val < 30 )
{
position_choice = 3;
}
else if( posit_val >70 && posit_val < 90 )
{
position_choice = 4;
}
else if(posit_val >140 && posit_val < 160)
{
position_choice = 5;
}
else if(posit_val >120 && posit_val < 130)
{
position_choice = 1;
}
else if(posit_val>240)
{
position_choice = 6;
}
}

As you can see the outputs of the switches are not linear but those values can be obtained using a print f statement or the dashboard. The position selection is stored in an external variable "position_choise" that is defined in user_routines.c. This variable is not reset when initializing autonomous mode, and it is then looked at when it comes time to chose which auto function to run. ALSO note that this function is called in manual mode since the robot is disabled before it goes into auto, that is the only time the switches can be read.

[Tom Saxton]

Originally Posted by SlimBoJones

Tom, post your code for when you are copying the OI variables to your static variables, and the code you are using to select your autonomous code from your static variables.

It might offer some more insight as to why you're seeing this behaviour.

-SlimBoJones...

Here's all of the sensor reading code. The autonomous code uses the global variable "g_stratAutonomous" to determine the autonomous mode via a switch statement.

The variables with a g_ are public globals, available to the autonomous mode code in a different file. The s_ variables are statics available only to user_routines.c code, which is the tele-operation code and some utilities used in both modes.

After an optional prefix, each variable name starts with a tag which describes the type of information stored in the variable. "ana" is an analog value from the RC (which needs to go through Get_Analog_Value to get a 10-bit analog value), "oana" is a direct 8-bit analog value from the OI. "digi" is a digital-in value, "digo" is digital-out. "f" is a boolean flag. "dist" is an accumulated optical encoder value.

We'll get all of our code posted on our web site after cleaning up a bit of the patches and hacks thrown in while debugging and experimenting in the pit between matches.

My favorite time at the PNW regional was when we were replacing a key on an arm axle that got sheered and also adding a limit switch to keep that from happening again. The mechanical stuff got finsihed amazingly quickly, but they were calling us to queue up by the time I was able to download and try the fresh new code, which of course was backwards the first time allowing us to drive against the stop, but not away from it!

///////////////////////////////////
// excerpt from user_routines.h
///////////////////////////////////

enum {
	stratLoaderLeft,
	stratLoaderRight,
	stratStartingTetra,
	stratHangingTetra,
	stratInterference,
	stratVisionTetra,
	stratMax
};

// strategy pot values
#define oanaManualLoader    1
#define oanaAutoLoader        26
#define oanaStartingTetra     55
#define oanaHangingTetra     88
#define oanaInterference      128
#define oanaVisionTetra        184

// slow loop count, our crappy timer
extern int g_cLoop;
extern uchar g_fPrint;

// measured arm positions
extern long g_mdegShoulderCur;
extern long g_mdegElbowCur;
extern long g_mdegWristCur;

// override flags
extern uchar s_fOverrideEncoders;
extern uchar s_fOverrideArmSensors;


enum {
	tposLeft = -1,
	tposCenter = 0,
	tposRight = 1
};
extern char g_tposStartingPos;
extern uchar g_stratAutonomous;
extern uchar g_fFarLoading;

///////////////////////////////////////////
// our sensor code from user_routines.c
///////////////////////////////////////////


// call this routine every time we get new OI data during autonomous
// or tele-operation modes
//
// the function reads new values from the OI and RC and computes averages
// from values accumulated from calls to Process_Data_From_Local_IO
void UpdateSensors()
{
	static ulong s_distLeftPrev = 0;
	static ulong s_distRightPrev = 0;
	
	int anaCurrentSensorAverageR;
	int anaCurrentSensorAverageL;
	int fOverride;
	ulong distT;

	long speedLeft, speedRight;

	// Our dopey timer.
	++g_cLoop;
	g_fPrint = (g_cLoop % 10) == 0;

	speedLeft = SpeedFromSample(Get_Left_Encoder_Count(), s_adistSampleLeft);
	speedRight = SpeedFromSample(Get_Right_Encoder_Count(), s_adistSampleRight);

	//	Arm Code
	s_fElbowLowLimit = digiElbowClosed == 0;

	g_mdegShoulderCur = MdegFromEncoder((s_anaPotShoulderTotal / s_cSampleFast) - encoderBiasShoulder);
	g_mdegElbowCur = MdegFromEncoder(encoderBiasElbow - (s_anaPotElbowTotal / s_cSampleFast));
	g_mdegWristCur = MdegFromEncoder(encoderBiasWrist - (s_anaPotWristTotal / s_cSampleFast));
	s_anaPotShoulderTotal = s_anaPotElbowTotal = s_anaPotWristTotal = 0;

	// monitor the left encoder
	distT = Get_Left_Encoder_Count();
	if (s_distLeftPrev != distT || pwmDriveL1 == 127)
	{
		s_distLeftPrev = distT;
		s_cLoopNoLeftEncoder = 0;
	}
	else if (s_cLoopNoLeftEncoder < 255)
	{
		++s_cLoopNoLeftEncoder;
	}

	// monitor the right encoder
	distT = Get_Right_Encoder_Count();
	if (s_distRightPrev != distT || pwmDriveR1 == 127)
	{
		s_distRightPrev = distT;
		s_cLoopNoRightEncoder = 0;
	}
	else if (s_cLoopNoRightEncoder < 255)
	{
		++s_cLoopNoRightEncoder;
	}

	// turn on the warning LED if either encoder has stopped responding
	digoEncoderLED = s_cLoopNoLeftEncoder >= 20 || s_cLoopNoRightEncoder >= 20;

//  Override Switch & LED Code
//
// WARNING: the OI bits get blasted when we're in autonomous mode
//
	if (!autonomous_mode)
	{
		s_fTurboDrive = digiTurboDrive;

		fOverride = digiEncoderOverride == 0;
		if(fOverride != s_fOverrideEncoders)
		{
			s_fOverrideEncoders = fOverride;
			printf("Encoders %s\n", s_apszOverride[s_fOverrideEncoders]);
		}

		fOverride = digiArmSensorOverride != 0;
		if(fOverride != s_fOverrideArmSensors)
		{
			s_fOverrideArmSensors = fOverride;
			printf("digiArmSensorOverride. %d\n", (int)digiArmSensorOverride);
			printf("Arm Sens. %s\n", s_apszOverride[s_fOverrideArmSensors]);
		}
		digoArmLimitLED = s_fOverrideArmSensors;

		fOverride = digiCurrentOverride == 0;
		if(fOverride != s_fDontAutoAdjustElbow)
		{
			s_fDontAutoAdjustElbow = fOverride;
			printf("Elbow Auto Adj. %s\n", s_apszOverride[1-s_fDontAutoAdjustElbow]);
		}
		digoCurrentLED = s_fDontAutoAdjustElbow;

		fOverride = digiFarLoading != 0;
		if(fOverride != g_fFarLoading)
		{
			g_fFarLoading = fOverride;
			printf("far loading %s\n", s_apszOverride[g_fFarLoading]);
		}
		digoCamLED = g_fFarLoading;

		fOverride = digiCompressEnable == 0;
		if(fOverride != s_fDisableCompressor)
		{
			s_fDisableCompressor = fOverride;
			printf("Comp. %s\n", s_apszOverride[s_fDisableCompressor]);
		}
		
		// autonomous mode switches
		g_tposStartingPos = 0;
		if (digiStartPosLeft)
			g_tposStartingPos = -1;
		if (digiStartPosRight)
			g_tposStartingPos = 1;

		// get the strategy mode from the potentiometer on the OI
		g_stratAutonomous = StratFromOana(oanaStrategy);

		// check for kyle mode
		s_fKyleDriveMode = g_tposStartingPos == tposLeft;
	}
	else
	{
		s_fDisableCompressor = fFalse;
		s_fDontAutoAdjustElbow = fFalse;
		s_fOverrideEncoders = fFalse;
		s_fOverrideArmSensors = fFalse;
	}

	// turn on the light if the pressure has dropped low enough to want the compressor
	digoCompressLED = !digiCompPressureHigh;

	if (g_fRobotDisabled)
	{
		s_mdegShoulderPrev = g_mdegShoulderCur;
		s_mdegElbowPrev = g_mdegElbowCur;
		set_pid_stop(pidDriveL);
	}
	
	s_cSampleFast = 0;
}

// given the value from the autonomous strategy potentiometer,
// return the corresponding "strat" value
int StratFromOana(uchar oana)
{
	return ValFromTable(oana, s_mp_strat_oana, stratMax);
}

// this array is used to determine the setting of
// the autonomous mode potentiometer
static const uchar s_mp_strat_oana[stratMax] =
{
	oanaManualLoader,
	oanaAutoLoader,
	oanaStartingTetra,
	oanaHangingTetra,
	oanaInterference,
	oanaVisionTetra
};

// given a reading from a detent potentiometer and a table
// of setting values, find the closest preset to the given
// value
int ValFromTable(int oana, const uchar pmp_val_oana[], int valMax)
{
	int doanaBest = 255;
	int valBest = 0;
	int val;

	for (val = 0; val < valMax; ++val)
	{
		int doana = oana - pmp_val_oana[val];
		if (doana < 0)
			doana = -doana;
		if (doana < doanaBest)
		{
			valBest = val;
			doanaBest = doana;
		}
	}

	return valBest;
}

// call this every time through the main or autonomous loops
// to collect data from sensors attached to the RC
void Process_Data_From_Local_IO(void)
{
	static uchar s_fShoulderButtonUp = fTrue;
	
    /* Add code here that you want to be executed every program loop. */

	s_anaPotShoulderTotal += Get_Analog_Value(anaPotShoulder);
	s_anaPotElbowTotal += Get_Analog_Value(anaPotElbow);
	s_anaPotWristTotal += Get_Analog_Value(anaPotWrist);

	if (digiShoulderFwd && digiShoulderBack)
	{
		if (s_fShoulderButtonUp)
		{
			s_fToggleShoulderPos = fTrue;
			s_fShoulderButtonUp = fFalse;
		}
	}
	else
	{
		s_fShoulderButtonUp = fTrue;
	}
	
	++s_cSampleFast;
}

[The Lucas]

WOW This is the most complex auto selecting routine I have ever seen.

extern char g_tposStartingPos;
extern uchar g_stratAutonomous;
extern uchar g_fFarLoading;

Where do you actually declare these varibles? extern just makes them global across all files that include userroutines.h, it doesn't actually create the varibles.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Tom Saxton

// WARNING: the OI bits get blasted when we're in autonomous mode
//
	if (!autonomous_mode)

I don't know whether the "OI bits" are only neutralized when the autonomous_mode flag is set, or if they go away when the autonomous input on the OI is activated. When both the auto and disable inputs are active, as they might be moments before the match begins, the robot is just disabled and not in autonomous_mode.

If the OI switch and joystick inputs are read as neutral whenever the auto input is activated, then there can be a time when the autonomous_mode isn't set but the OI inputs are not active. That's not something I checked when I was looking at how autonomous_mode responded to various combinations of competition port settings, but I think it's worth looking into now.

[bombadier337]

We set it from the OI as well. What I did was put a line of code in the Process_Data_From_Master routine (I probably spelled tha wrong, I haven't actually looked at the code in a while) that reads a switch on the OI (we plugged a switch on joystick 3 and made the switch use the two auxilary digital inputs) Depending on the value the switch gave, we could have 3 different autonomous modes. Basically, when the robot was disabled it was constantly checking the status of the switch and updating the value of the auto_mode variable. As soon as autonomous mode hit there were 3 if statements, basically

if(auto_mode==0)
{
//automode1
}
else if(auto_mode==1)
{
//automode2
}
else if(auto_mode==2)
{
//automode2
}

It probably wasn't the most efficient code, but it worked flawlessly so I was happy. If anyone wants to see the actual code just tell me, I just don't feel like going and grabbing my laptop right now.

[Tom Saxton]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

WOW This is the most complex auto selecting routine I have ever seen.

Well, it's doing a lot more than setting the autonomous modes, but we did build the OI controls to handle a bunch of autonomous modes. We can go for the knocking the hanging tetra, drive to a loading zone on the left or right, we can be carrying the starting tetra and position to cap, we can run interference on the other side of the field. g_stratAutonomous determines which of these strategies to run. For the loading zones, we can go for the near or far instance (g_fFarLoading). And we can start from one of three starting postions (g_tposStartingPos). Once you've got dead reckoning working, it's easy to compute a path that will take you from your starting position to your destination, so the code to run all of these different modes is actually not that complex.

Like most teams, we didn't get the vision stuff working, but we still wanted to be as flexible as possible so we could mesh well with alliance partners' autonomous modes. A lot of robots could only use the auto or human loaders, etc. We have enough flexibility that we can let our partners pick what they want to do and we can still do something useful.

We didn't get everything reliably working, but we did have three functional modes available by Saturday at the PNW regional. One thing that slowed us down getting the third mode working was the problem with the wrong mode value coming through, hence this thread.

Originally Posted by The Lucas

extern char g_tposStartingPos;
extern uchar g_stratAutonomous;
extern uchar g_fFarLoading;

Where do you actually declare these varibles? extern just makes them global across all files that include userroutines.h, it doesn't actually create the varibles.

As noted in the code, this is just an excerpt from user_routines.c and user_routines.h. Trust me, I know what extern does, the code compiles, links and works, except for the issue of sometimes getting bad values from the OI. To answer your question, the variables you asked about are declared in user_routines.c.

[eugenebrooks]

Originally Posted by Tom Saxton

Does anyone understand the details of how values from the OI are sent to the RC prior to and during autonomous?

Our procedure is to put the robot in manual and disabled, then switch to autonomous, then enable. We know that we don't get into the autonomous branch of the code until we are in both autonomous and enabled. Even if we capture the values before the "autonomous_mode" becomes true, we still get values that are always wrong on some switches and sometimes wrong on the pot.

Has anyone else seen this issue? Obviously, it's pretty embarrassing when your robot runs the wrong autonomous mode in front of five other teams and a large perceptive audience!

You have the basic way the signals work correct. First the robot is disabled and the autonomous flag is not set. This goes on for an unspecified amount of time. At the start of the match the autonomous flag goes up, and then the robot is enabled. You can emulate this behavior on your competition port box, but not the exact timing of signals.

We used the OI to select autonomous mode back when PBASIC was being used. The first time through the loop after reset the switch values were not reliable. The last time through the loop, just prior to seeing the autonomous flag switch, the switch values were also not reliable. We wrote code that saved the values of the required switches after a couple of cycles. What you don't want to do is save the value on the first cycle, and you don't want to save the last value prior to the autonomous flag going up. In our scheme, we saved the value a couple of cycles after reset and the students knew to reset the robot after any adjustment to the switches. You could also save several versions of the value, and select one several cycles before the autonomous flag goes up to get a reliable value. Saving several samples of the value, comparing them, and selecting "do nothing" if they are not consistent is also a good idea.

We have not tried using the OI to select the autonomous mode since, as there are plenty of switches/pots available in the robot. It is the same basic OI as the PBASIC days, and it is likely to suffer from the same issues when reading switches to select the autonomous mode. A little tweaking of your code that reads and saves the mode selector value and you should be fine. If not, move the pot to the robot...

[Tom Saxton]

Originally Posted by eugenebrooks

The first time through the loop after reset the switch values were not reliable.

Awesome! Thanks for confirming the behavior I was seeing. It's good to know I'm not insane and there wasn't something stupid in my code trashing values.

When you say the values are unreliable, does that mean they all get set to defaults a few cycles before autonomous_mode changes, or do they get trashed with random values during that transition?

The reset-after-change idea seems fine. Another idea I had was to hardwire one of the digital-inputs to a non-default value and use that as a canary to know when the values are wrong, depending on the answer to my previous question.

I can't wait to get the robot back so I can experiment with this and get it all figured out. I hope this thread saves someone else the annoyance of needing to figure this out between matches!

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by Tom Saxton

When you say the values are unreliable, does that mean they all get set to defaults a few cycles before autonomous_mode changes, or do they get trashed with random values during that transition?

During the autonomous period (autonomous_mode=1) the field controllers (hooked to OI thru competition port) will make all analog values sent to the robot 127 and all digital values 0. This is not the same as simulating this with a dongle, where all OI values will be read in as normal.

[eugenebrooks]

Originally Posted by Tom Saxton

When you say the values are unreliable, does that mean they all get set to defaults a few cycles before autonomous_mode changes, or do they get trashed with random values during that transition?

We only noted that the value picked up by the RC did not correspond
to the value selected by the switches. We patched it by waiting a few
cycles to pick up the values that selected the auto mode and moved on
to other things. You could write code that saves the values read in a
circular buffer, if you want, and prints them out a few cycles after
auto mode goes up. You could then get the answer to your question.
We discovered the issue while testing the auto mode with a competition
port switch box, handling disable and auto mode switches by hand.
Again, it was several years ago and my memory is hazy. We have
not used OI switches to select the auto mode since the PBASIC days.