This new sensor combines an accelerometer and a gyroscope to give users the ability to measure their robot’s movement in any direction.
More information can be found in this Knowledge Base article:
Next up, the Linear Motion Kit v2.
This updated version of the original Linear Motion Kit includes (4) 12" rails and red slide trucks to match other V5 Motion components.
Finally, we’re also releasing Star Drive Versions of both our “regular” and High Strength Clamping Shaft Collars.
All of these products are now in-stock and available for purchase on the US site. They will be available internationally in the next few weeks as our other warehouses receive stock.
pretty sure the slides are exactly like the old ones, just red. I was really excited for a moment too lol.
even if the slides were aluminum it would be so much better.
In the V2 kit, 17.5" rails are no longer included. The weight tab on the new kit mentions a 17" rail, but I can’t find any reference to it outside of that. Looks like that might be a mistake, left over from copying the old weight information in.
With an accelerometer, you can find the 2nd integration of acceleration with respect to time to find the displacement of the robot essentially eliminating the need for tracking wheels. The gyro will also tell the orientation. Because the accelerometer is multi axis, you can extract even more useful data making odometry possible without any tracking wheels. Granted, there is no code on vex for this kind of math because we never had this kind of sensor, but this opens up many opportunities, I’m excited.
Unfortunately, not with the consumer grade accelerometers that VEX sells - they don’t have enough precision and mechanical vibrations introduce so much noise that tracking robot position is not possible.
However, the old accelerometers were good to detect robot collisions and tilt. We used one during Skyrise during autonomous and prog skill run to detect if robot run into something unexpected, and in driver control to detect if robot was leaning when lift was extended and to reduce velocity thus preventing it from potentially falling.
