PID Control

[John Gutmann]

I am right now looking at the possibility of using PID code for a few things which I will not go into too much detail about. But one thing I would like to attempt is a balancing robot, I have search google, the forums, and read the white papers, I am planning on asking Matt Krass next time he isn't busy and when I see him around campus.

I understand the basic concept, but one of my main questions about a PID loop for a balancing robot, is for a nicely tuned PID loop how much oscilation would there be?

And the other scenario I didn't understand was if a robot is trying to go a certain amount of distance. Since the error builds up how much would it have to overshoot before it will eventually settle at the same spot? Or would you use just a PD loop for this and instead of having the error build up if your stuck just look at the change. And just have the coefficient be the inverse of the error so the slower it is changing the faster your gonna try to move and the faster it is changing the slower your gonna move. So if you get stuck, then launch forward you would slow down faster back to the velocity you trying to maintain.

Any insight would be wonderful. This summer this will be a HUGE part of my code. So Any and all help is very much appreciated, Thanks!

-John