[CRUSH-build] Preparation for Las Vegas

[Melissa Eckelbarger]

Hi Joann

 

I think this team is very lucky to have you!!!!! Happy coding. 

 

Melissa

 

  _____  

From: crush-build-bounces at wizardofaz.whsites.net
[mailto:crush-build-bounces at wizardofaz.whsites.net] On Behalf Of Gary and
Joann Hawes
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 8:11 PM
To: build at crush1011.org
Subject: Re: [CRUSH-build] Preparation for Las Vegas

 

We are allowed to TALK about software all we want, right?  I had several
things I wanted to throw out to the build team even though some of it would
probably be better addressed to the code team.  But we can accept or reject
these ideas and prioritize the accepted ones so we know what to work on.  

 

Three of these ideas require some hardware changes so I'll throw those out
first.

 

1.  I already mentioned the idea of brakes.  Korbin was the only one who
seemed to like the idea.  I just wanted to point one that we now have the
switch previously used for dumping to accomodate this if we decide to use
it.  

 

2.  We talked about locking out the trigger if the shooter wheel isn't
spinning.  I think we need more than that.  During one of the matches in
Phoenix, Jason and I could clearly see that the wheel wasn't spinning, but
Korbin thought he was scoring because our alliance partners just happened to
shoot at the same time.  Also, the drivers might just think it was jammed
balls.  I propose an alarm be sounded if the trigger is pulled and the
shooter wheel is not up to speed.  This would require modifying our box with
an alarm, a loud one to overcome the noise in there.  It might be worthwhile
to put a motion sensor of some type on the shooter wheel.  If that is
do-able.  That would be very helpful in autonomous mode also.

 

3.  I propose we lose the solid rear bumper.  Replace it with two bumpers
that don't impede changing the battery.  If we must have a third one in
front of the battery,  make it as quick to remove as possible.  We can't
afford low batteries and we spend too much time in queue lines to
effectively charge between matches.  We need to be able to change out the
battery quickly.  Then the other one can be charging while we are in the
queue.  

 

The rest of these have to do with the autonomous mode.  

 

4.  My big idea for autonomous mode is to actually create three of them.  A
close, centered shot; a farther out centered shot; and an off-center shot.
Then we randomly pick one each match to run. We wouldn't even know what we
were going to run, how could they.  It would make us MUCH harder to defend
against as the matches got more strategic.  The first two would just be
variants of each other.  Using different blob sizes would result in
different distances.  The third one would be a bit trickier.  We would have
to use camera angles the whole way in.  

 

5.  Assuming we get this working on FWIPER (above idea) , we will probably
need to be able to re-calibrate to the blob sizes we are getting in Las
Vegas.  To acommodate this, we could use the two aiming lights on the box
for a different purpose during autonomous.  For example, blink both lights
if we are searching; turn both lights off if we are tracking with a blob
size < 5; right light on for blob size => 5 and < 10; left light on for blob
size => 10 and < 15; and both lights on for blob size =>15.  We could also
use them for finer calibration if needed or for monitoring other parameters
in subsequent matches.

 

6.   I feel that the only reason autonomous didn't work in Phoenix, once
Chris got it turning the right direction (which was also the problem in Auto
Move and Shoot),  was the uneven drive caused by one motor being unplugged.
If we go back to Auto Move and Shoot, we could improve the code to overcome
that sort of thing.  If we watched our Pan Error, we would see it start to
rise alot just before we lost track.  We could turn accordingly to
compensate for the uneven driving.  

 

I guess that is it.  I feel that the amount of code I'm suggesting is very
do-able within our Fix-It Windows.  We just need that camera tray Bill
ordered.  What do you all think?

 

 

Joann

 

 

 

 

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