Picking a gyro for field-centric swerve control

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

There's a current bug in the cRIO FPGA image that prevented me from using it in the 2010 BreakAway game, but I am going to be prototyping with this thing like crazy in the off-season:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8656

I've been promised that the guys who work on the FPGA will fix it for 2011, so that I can get I2C communication with it working - the compass does clock skewing and the current cRIO implementation doesn't like that. With this sensor, and some well-placed encoders on the drivetrain, I should be able to drive any type of robot anywhere on the field during autonomous AND make the robot do whatever I want during the game (including field-oriented driving). With its integrated 3D accelerometers and the tilt-compensated heading, what more can you ask?

-Danny

Keep us posted, I was planning on playing with a cheaper one this summer myself. I think the one I have interfaces over SPI but we were planning on making it and several other sensors run on a coprocessor anyway.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Keep us posted, I was planning on playing with a cheaper one this summer myself. I think the one I have interfaces over SPI but we were planning on making it and several other sensors run on a coprocessor anyway.

Sure, I was thinking of putting it into a white-paper or something if everything works out - including wiring schematics and a parts list. I personally like this rather integrated solution, everything runs off the I2C port on the digital sidecar so I don't even have to document any "custom circuits." I also don't have to write any custom PIC code or anything like that, which makes documentation and replication of my sensor module much easier.

Anyway, I'll certainly document my findings!

-Danny