pic: Toltechs drive-train teaser

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

Love the video - that base looks slick. Do you have closed-loop speed control over the wheels? It looks like the lines it's moving in are way too straight to be from open loop motor commands. Of course, I've never built a base like that, so what do I know.

Quite the exacting eye you have. Yes there was an immediate concern about that very issue. The video edit cuts outs the shots of a slight drift in one direction. It is more pronounced in one direction more so than any other so the one motor/transmission that is making all the noise in the video was completely rebuilt after the test.

Now how best to get closed-loop feed back from such a drive. Encoders on the wheels may be one way to ensure that all the wheels are spinning at the desired rates but with the large amount of scrub in such a system we are not certian that solves the problem. What does provide true feed back would be one of the electronic chips. Gyro / 2D accelerometer We are getting those items wired and the programmers will work with those a bit while they also work on the camera system being the feedback system for shooting solutions.

Lots of work to do in just two weeks.