One of my team’s coaches asked me to look through our “junkyard archive” to track down a gyroscope. I didn’t particularly remember getting one, but I searched anyway. I did eventually find one, and he asked me to find the documentation. When I went through the kit of parts check lists in the FIRST documentation, over the past two years my team has participated, there is no mention of gyroscopes. Did I just stumble across one, or did FIRST give it to us in a kit of parts?
-Mike 375
There have been “Gyro’s” a.k.a. Yaw Rate Sensors in the kit for 3 years.
The parts are used on Covettes and some Cadillacs in a traction control scheme. The onboard computer knows the velocity of each wheel and the angle of steering on the front wheels. With this information the computer calculates the rate that the car SHOULD be turning if its wheels all had traction. It compares this to the information that the yaw rate sensor gives it about the vehicles TRUE angular spin. If there is a difference, then there must be a traction problem somewhere.
These gyros can be very useful. Several teams used them to automatically balance the bridge automatically last year. Others have used them to make a robot drive straight.
I encourage teams to play with them over the off season. It is worth the both.
Joe J.