We have several autonomous routines we have put together that work consistently on our practice field and also at our competitions. - as recently as the last couple of weeks. When I say “consistent,” I mean that they only mess up maybe 1 out of every 10 runs. However, at our tournament this weekend, all of our routines have started messing up every time at various points (and not always the same points). A turn may overshoot (or undershoot) the required angle… or the robot may go just a bit too far (or too short)… The only reasons we can come up with are possibly static (we haven’t seen the fields being sprayed regularly) and temperature (it’s really, really cold this weekend). Of course, if these are part of the problem, we don’t even know how to begin to fix things. We’re reasonably sure our sensors are working because, if they weren’t returning good data, we know that we would see far more mistakes in our routines. We have also noticed that numerous other teams are also struggling with their autonomous runs on the practice fields.
Any thoughts as to what could cause these types of problems at a specific tournament? Maybe some variance in the fields ? (these are raised up 24", not sure if this would affect things)
I will say that static is probably not your issue. idk about temperature, but also probably not. your code is probably where your inconsistencies are coming from. are you moving based on time or rotations? are you moving slowly so that your wheels don’t skid?
Thx, yes, we do use time, rotations, and other factors. But, we hate to change these when they seem to work in all other locations. But, the good news is that our story had a happy ending. We ended up doing well at the tournament despite our autonomous problems. And, I was able to confirm that they were having lots of problems with static. Two different fields actually disconnected twice during matches (which had to be replayed) and teams struggled all day with the effects of the static. When a problem like this happens, at least it is something that everyone has to deal with (if they rely on autonomous routines). Very ready for the new anti-static tiles to become available!
Time is only useful to have a delay between actions, never to control drive or turning. I would recommend using auto straightening for your drive and a gyro for turns if you aren’t already. Also try to make your auton as slow as possible to reduce skid or overshooting.
You can do somethings to minimize inconsistencies. such as pid controllers, slew rate to reduce wheel slippage, and even adding powered tracking wheels to more accurately track movement. But sometimes there can still be outside factors, these are just some things to try and minimize things.