paper: Optimization and Analysis of Drivetrain Movement

[ThaddeusMaximus]

Originally Posted by apalrd

To avoid differential equations, I've solved the physics equations in Excel iteratively (with a time-step of e.g. 0.01s and each slice of time on a new line). then I can also plot the curve of all of the variables in Excel. This is also easier to distribute to students in FRC.

Yes, you can indeed solve DEs numerically in that fashion, but it's hard to truly "optimize"; you've gotta trial-error it in every step (which, could be done, but processing power).

Also, some of my (very ambitious sophmore) students versed in calculus rather enjoyed seeing the relationship ( the (1-e^-t) curve) that goes on, which kinda vanishes when you do it discretely. This originally started as a "can this be done?" project.

Originally Posted by apalrd

What you don't go into detail on is how you determine what the sprint-distance you analyze to is. This all comes down to robot strategy, but it's really *really* important to get this right when you analyze the gear ratios in this way. It's all too easy to say the distance is 27' or 50' when really 10' or 15' is more appropriate for the game.

Yeah, this is arbitrary and pretty much just a flexible solution. It's something we're a bit new to, maybe someone else has better insight. I remember 610 saying something about how they optimized with sprint distance in mind in 2013.