Hi,
We used a field oriented drive system this year, it definitely made Breakaway SO much easier.
We originally used a compass to read the directions, but quickly realized that there was too much interference around the sensor. We then used a gyro to do it. The WPILib version of holonomic drive is NOT advised, we found many small errors in it, in addition to the fact that the code was labeled as “Experimental”. The Error you are referring to is likely the walking of the gyro. We noticed little to no error after only the 2.5 mins of a match, even while crossing the bumps 3-5 times per match. Actually, using a holomonic drive system made this easier.
The field oriented drive system allows us to have many usefull features:
- Easier control: Anyone can use it…point in a direction, and the bot goes that way!
- Auto aligning features: Hit a button and line up for the bump automatically, while all you do it point in the direction of the bump.
- Auto hang aligning: Again, hit a button and drive directly towards the tower; bot will align to it by itself
- Drive in a direction: We refer to it as “the trigger”. While we are driving towards a ball, regardless of if the bot is facing towards the ball, as we drive to it (using the shortest possible distance) the bot will turn in that direction, eliminating the need to stop, turn, then drive.
these are only a couple features that we had. This is a quick video we made while testing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT3WhTcQvw4 Not all features are noted here
I should also note we used a 3 axis joystick, so there was only one-easy to use-joystick for robot motion control. If you saw us in action at some later competitions (mostly off season) you can see us “having fun” on the field sometimes.