Autonomous

[chinckley]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

That's the idea.
If I remember correctly -x will turn to the right and +x will go left.

In practice, because of possible spin out as your robot gets up to speed, I bet the turns won't quite even out. The earlier turns will lose ground and the later turns will be more efficient. But then you'll run into another robot or trailer and everything gets thrown off anyway. Just keep moving.

The WatchDog Delay & Feed takes care of everything to do with WatchDog timing for you. That vi tells the WatchDog to delay and to feed itself as often as necessary while it's causing the delay.

Thanks so much.

We will be moving, moving, moving... I hope.

[Mark McLeod]

I neglected to mention that the turns also don't even out because you'll be turning in one direction for 2 seconds and in the opposite direction for only 1 second.

That'll essentially give you an overall arc to the right I think, but so slight that you might end up in your opponents corner. Of course, you'll be running into the robot coming out of that corner way before you get there.

To end up straighter you'd go one way for 1.5 seconds, then the other way for 1.5 seconds to even things out.
But that's probably overthinking it all anyway.

[chinckley]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

I neglected to mention that the turns also don't even out because you'll be turning in one direction for 2 seconds and in the opposite direction for only 1 second.

That'll essentially give you an overall arc to the right I think, but so slight that you might end up in your opponents corner. Of course, you'll be running into the robot coming out of that corner way before you get there.

To end of straighter you'd go one way for 1.5 seconds, then the other way for 1.5 seconds to even things out.
But that's probably overthinking it all anyway.

On the regolith is it known how long it will take to get from one end to the other? We could not afford it and had no playing field available to us.

If I started in the lower right corner and went slightly left then straight and then slightly left, etc. I am hoping to go to about mid field or so. As long as I am pointing toways the other end when I am done so my trailer is not to the other teams in the other alliance.

Move, move, move...

[Mark McLeod]

The ground your robot can cover depends too much on the gearing and wheel slip to know for sure. With no other robots in the way you'll probably make it the whole length of the field during the 15 seconds. But since there are four other robots with trailers in that direction, as well as the robot coming from the left corner, I imagine we'll all end up in one big traffic tie-up in the center.

You probaly want a variation in your autonomous to account for the three possible starting positions. Keeping what you have you can simply duplicate that loop twice more. Then vary your power and times in each for your best guess, e.g., if what you have handles one corner, then just reverse the numbers in the second autonomous for the other corner.

Once you agree on starting positions with your Alliance partners for a match, you can quickly switch between auto programs just by using that True/False switch on the left. True for the corner you'll start in and False for the others.

[chinckley]

Can you just highlight to copy them? Do they just go one under the other like the Basic Robot Main has three loops?

If we are not using the other two loops in the Basic Robot Main can we just delete those?

Thanks so much.

[Mark McLeod]

Yes, you can just highlight everything and paste it a couple of times.
Just like the three separate loops in Basic Robot Main.vi
Do make sure that only one of the loops is active at any time. It could get pretty random if two were active at the same time.
An alternate is to drop all three into an enumerated case statement, so only one can possible be active.

In Basic Robot Main.vi you can delete the camera and periodic loops if you aren't using them.

[chinckley]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Yes, you can just highlight everything and paste it a couple of times.
Just like the three separate loops in Basic Robot Main.vi
Do make sure that only one of the loops is active at any time. It could get pretty random if two were active at the same time.
An alternate is to drop all three into an enumerated case statement, so only one can possible be active.

In Basic Robot Main.vi you can delete the camera and periodic loops if you aren't using them.

What does the periodic loop do?
We are not using a camera.

I'll try turning two off as I am not sure how to do the enumerated case statement yet. More lessons to learn...

[Mark McLeod]

The periodic loop doesn't do anything the way it comes.
It's an empty template for users to see how to add something that requires a very regular, timed period. Something that has to be clocked, such as, collecting sensors requiring a particular frequency or oscillation. Feedback control loops might require a regular period to work predictably.

Doing the three loops is a good place to start. It's easy to visualize what's going on. An enumerated case is a variation on that, but time enough for that later. These three loops can easily be moved into a case statement at a later time.

P.S.
The next step would be to convince you to add a 3-position switch to your robot, so you can decide on the fly...