Nothing too special. Just the kit's chassis to test out the electronics, transmissions and camera. Also lets the programmers work on the camera and drive code. (Note the steering wheel being used to control the bot)
Driving that thing around on the concrete tore up the KOP wheels pretty quickly… good thing we weren’t planning on using them on the real bot. Steering wheel control is awesome, once you get the sensitivity on the throttle right.
Is that a steering wheel I see being used? Interesting choice for tank drive, though I’m kind of interested in seeing how it handles.
About that robot, I’ve noticed (when my team had it built) that it was very hard to control, even with an extra 130 lbs (me) sitting on it. We had lots of trouble turning, even on carpet. How did the CMUCam work with that robot?
Uh … The CMU cam still needs some tuning. It was more attracted to the trees and the green panels on the fence than the actual vision tetra.
As for the wheel, we dont have any decent video of it yet. Next time we have it out … we’ll shoot some video of it doing figure 8’s or something and post it. One of the adults who drove it said it steered like a stock car.
I think he said “slot car”. 
As far as the camera, we’ll see how well it tracks once I actually calibrate it. It had been working fine inside with just the default calibration, but it was seriously not working outside.
Must be nice to field test your robot outside wearing shorts and t-shirts.
Want some of our 10"+ of snow?
Maybe I will add it to the CD Swap section… Free Shipping!!! :rolleyes:
Hm… not a bad idea. I did have to move the OI over into the shade, because the plastic was getting too hot. I could use some of that snow to cool it.
Man… I live in Alaska. I looked at that picture for about a minute wondering how you guys had managed to get the KOP and game info last summer, before I realised that there isnt snow everywhere in the world. And I can see how being outside could screw with your camera stuff. We have to use a worklight to illuminate targets because our lighting isnt bright enough, but in certain rooms on certain colors for some reason the bot goes for the light, or even windows. Then in one room the table tops are almost exactly the same shade of blue as the target. I should really figure out exactly how close, but it is close enough to make the camera go nuts.
Actually, before we put the electronics on it. We had the kitbot be a ‘gokart’. We got the lightest person on our team, 90 lbs. and a junior on a wheeled chair tuggin on the back with a rope. The robot was able to push/pull about 250 lbs. This didn’t really tear up the wheels that much, but we didn’t try turning with all that much weight. The way we rode it was just a simple plug wires into battery, take wires out method.
Heh … sadly, outside is the easiest place to test our bot. Inside our shop, is tile floors, and there isnt much room in there to begin with (let alone with 30 students in there) and the place where we have access to carpet takes about 20 min to move the desks so theres a decent amount of space to drive around in. Glad to see the school supports the team so much :rolleyes:
Although, its kinda fun to drive the bot around in the parking lot, and follow people walking around (people who are not on the team … and have no idea why theres a robot following em)
Looks nice and warm out there Mike. Great to see you all back and doing well. Can’t wait to see your finished machine in Atlanta again this year. Steering wheel is a great idea!