Unfortunatly the motors for the arm dont have encoders, however we dont really need them. I will say we do have "somthing special’’ that helps with control.
A miniature model of the robot?
Nope its part of our actual robot.
I think he was talking about how to control the spine. You could control it with a model, if it was designed cleverly.
Im sorry im not following could you please explain?
What he is stating is that you could make a miniature version of your arm in order to control your robot, you have a feedback sensor on the model on the points of movement, and you have the same on the larger version and you just work it in the code to say when this is he (on the mini) this goes here (on the real one), im not sure of how its exactly done, but i have seen it done before
Oh i get it know, crap now why didn’t we think of that. Its a good idea unfortunately we didn’t think of it and probably wouldn’t of had time to do it.
Guess’ for control:
- A resisting flex seonsor allowing for the approximate bend of the antenna to be read.
- A camera that looks for a “green blob” on the end.
and coolest (but least likely)…
- Your using a fiber-optics cable and analyzing the light distortion to find how your bent!!!:eek:
The most direct (and probably easiest) method would just be to build a miniature version of the arm and put potentiometers where the motors would interface. Then you just read the pot values and map them.
If you design it, you can build it into a project box the size of a joystick base during your fix-it windows, and just plug it in at competition
that is crazy i cant wait to see it in action at the FL regional
I think we are using the same mecanum wheels as you guys
This is def. gunna b the bot i want to go check out at atlanta! way cool and u need to release a video
I have been fortunate enough to see the prototype of this arm in action and I can vouch for its extreme awesomeness. Its probably one of the coolest arms that I have ever seen attached to a FIRST robot.
I know i promised video but there have been some technical problems but thursday i will post video from the florida regional for those who want to see it and wont be there.
my mind, is blown
if that monster works, you guys deserve an award
please please please get a video up soon! i cant wait to see this!
Did this ever end up working?
i saw it in action on the FL regional webcast and it appeared that they took the arm off for most of their matches…
anybody have video/info ?
They competed at Palmetto this year; I recall them scoring ringers, but I don’t think their arm was ever used on the field to its full potential.
Someone defientely needs to find some videos of this thing working…
at florida we ran into a mess of programming problems that ended up breaking our arm. For palmeto we shorten it giving us more control and we could score about 3 or 4 per match when we didnt have somebody on us. It never worked as well as we wanted it to but we learned alot and its cool to just mess around with it.