What Are The Necessary Sensors To Excel at Vex?

VEX V5 General Discussion
#1

Hello,
For the 2023-2024 game, my team wants to get into sensors. We were wondering what the best sensors are that should always be on your robot to make it highly consistent in programming skills and auton. Thank you!

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#2

Inertial sensor is quite useful.
You can do without a GPS sensor by having a tracker wheel and a shaft encoder.
Sometimes, potentiometers are useful and so are optical shaft encoders for certain things like lifts, but it really depends on the game. It also depends on your desired accuracy and precision. If you look at the 4 bar lifts from Tipping point, many teams did very well using the in-built encoder within the motor.
Sometimes, based on the game, bumper switches and limit switches are useful.
Overall, just wait for the reveal. Then, you can list each sensor using the VEX shop and decide whether you need them. It is hard to give advice without knowing the game and the accuracy and precision required.

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#3

Wait for game details to come out. As of now, not enough information about how robot needs to interact with game objects.

Motion control is important - plenty of sensors to work with in that department.

I would say it depends on your coding skill levels too.

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#4

Our coder is quite good, but he has trouble with getting consistent paths.

#5

I would like to learn more about sensors too, and I found this article from the VEX library! Let me know if this seems helpful!

#6

Then try inertial. It can be used for odometry (please correct me if I’m wrong).

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#7

This is not what you are explicitly asking, but it needs to be said. If you are not FULLY using the data/sensors from inside the motors, you need to.

  1. rpm (it is at target speed? why not?)
  2. watts (it is underloaded? gear up. overloaded? gear down)
  3. temp (see #2)
  4. degrees of rotation (tons of useful stuff to do with this one)

Vex can/should be a data-driven adventure.

Apparently, you can use GPS with skills AND head-to-head auton.

Battery sensor. What’s that? Yes. You can read the # cycles, using the brain, for each battery pack. Pick your best packs for competition.

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#8

Inertial is almost necessary to have a very consistent autonomous.

PIDs are great!

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