We have a flywheel shooter and want to use a rate limiter on it to smooth it. We are also using feedforward + pid (WPILib classes) for rpm control. Is it better to use the rate limiter on the setpoint, or the output of the controllers? Or does it not matter very much? Thanks.
Setpoint - almost always setpoint.
A rate limit on the setpoint is a way of making sure you don’t ask your controller to try to do something that’s not physically plausible with the mechanism.
A rate limit on the output expresses the fact that the mechanism can’t survive certain violent changes in actuation force.
The two can often be swapped with each other, and frequently are in real life. But at least for FRC, unless you have mechanism robustness concerns, rate-limit your setpoint, but let the control effort be free to be whatever it needs to be.
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Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it.
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