Control System Training

[JDM]

Hi. I'm the programming leader on our team, and on our team it means I am basically in charge of electronics too. This year, we have several new members. Instead of just teaching them how to program, I would like to get them trained to be proficient with all the ins and outs of the new control system and am hoping to get some ideas on how to do this.

Do you think it would be more effective to start out with the IFI system so they can get a basic idea of what everything is or dive right into 2009's? What training methods have been most successful to you?

On another note, one new member has a little bit of experience with C and I think it might be a good idea to have him practice a bit with the syntax and everything on the IFI system before going into C++. Would you agree?

Any thoughts/experiences are helpful.

Thanks

[Alan Anderson]

The underlying structure of the old and new control systems is different enough that I'd suggest not bothering with the IFI system.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

The underlying structure of the old and new control systems is different enough that I'd suggest not bothering with the IFI system.

Agreed. I think your students will end up confused if you try to cover both in the same offseason.

[rsisk]

Here is a great overview of the 2009 control system from Team 103 that could help with the training

[fritzdejongh]

On our team (2009 Rookies, so new system only) we put as many kids as possible through what we dubbed "boot certification." To boot certify someone, we started with all the major components unplugged on the bot and the controls station (ie we didn't unhook every power wire, just things like the router and so on). Then the student has to
1) Step through each component in turn, explain what it does, and list everything it's connected to.
2) Hook everything up, power on the robot, start the dashboard, everything to be able to operate the robot. Be able to do wired and wireless. Know how to use the deployed program, or startup labview and run the "main", and even deploy a program.

It worked well for kids to watch others do this, and then try it themselves. We'd prompt them if they got stuck, we didn't try to make it a chore... Of course the ones who put it together were already familiar with the system.

This provided a good starting point to teach labview. The kids not on the programming team at least knew how the system worked and could start it up.

[lynca]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Here is a great overview of the 2009 control system from Team 103 that could help with the training

Here are the DiscoBots Training materials, http://2009.discobots.org/node/7

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by lynca

Here are the DiscoBots Training materials, http://2009.discobots.org/node/7

Wow I'm impressed, Great set of tutorials.

-RC