I have a question. When we try our autonomous on our robot it starts to drift and turn without us telling so. We tried to test different types of autonomouses and even just did a simple drive 5000. Even then, the robot starts to drift, we haven’t had this problem until a month ago. Is it a problem with the structure of our robot, just the drivetrain itself or an autonomous issue?
Welcome to the Forum!
Lots of things can cause drift. Friction is a number one thing to look at. That means looking at your base, how the motors and axles are mounted. Are the wheels clean? If you run wheels on the floor or carpet, little pieces of sand, dirt, etc. can make a difference.
Due to manufacturing differences, all motors are not exactly the same. So if you are doing “time based” movements, the robot will drift. If you are doing rotation based, you need to check every so often to make sure the rotations match. Sometimes breaking a long run (ie rotate 200 times) into smaller runs (rotate 75,75,50) may help.
You said this started a month ago, what is the big difference between then and when it worked? Did you put a superstructure on the robot that causes one side to be heavier than the other? That will change the force needed and traction.
Hope some of these ideas help get you to thinking about other things to look at.
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Ok, I’ll check all of these on our robot , it may be the wheel or the motors, as our parts are getting old. I’ll clean the wheels and see if I can get new motors in our classroom.
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