Hello everybody,
Click HERE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaeaZBVpLpI) for a video of our autonomous. Instead of using a camera this year, we’re using ultrasonic sensors.
Some pictures if you’re interested…
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/428948380_2ad16a7e48.jpg?v=0
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/428948387_2ad16a7e48.jpg?v=0
Thanks.
NEW! EXCITING!
Hah, actually, that’s really cool
I recognize those MaxBotix sonar sensors. We haven’t yet attempted to put them on the robot, but we did do a bit of testing with them. I saw your robot via webcast in KC - it looks like the robot came close to scoring several times in autonomous. Do you get false range readings that cause the robot to lose lock on the spider feet?
I’ll try to catch webcasts from Lone Star Regional, otherwise see you in Atlanta. Good luck and good “hunting”.
(Yeah, I’m Clayton’s Dad…)
woa nice omni wheels?
swerve drive, actually.
Nice! I’m looking forward to seeing ya’ll at Lone Star.
No, the range is fine… but, since it’s an octagon shape, sometimes we lose contact with the spider legs. Then, the robot shifts right to find the next contact point. Unfortunately, autonomous is only 15 seconds and the robot cannot lock on and score in time. We’re trying to fix that.
That’s very cool. We had routines worked out with sonar, but the camera worked so well we didn;t use it.
The fact you can go sideways works well with the sonar.
Question- we too are using Maxbotix sensors. What are you bouncing off-of to center on the spider leg? I assume you use the front two with a diode to time them. Where do the reflect from? And I assume the one at the base of the arm sets the centering position on the spider leg plate?
WC 
I am actually the head student programmer on the robot.
We have two sensors on the base of the robot, they are bouncing off of the lower flat vertical piece below the spider legs. They dont use a diode, we simply have code that fires them at seperate times so not to catch each other. Occasionally they will catch one of the poles, but we are working on a solution on that.
The two sensors on the bottom get us lined up on the leg and then a third sensor on the arm itself tells the robot if a leg is in front of it. If it is, then it drops it, if not then it tries to circle the rack. I dont have the pwm numbers right for the circle so it doesnt really work yet.
Watch out for us at Lone Star… I should have most of the problems fixed after Thursday.