Control Systems
Control Systems is the group is responsible for the programming of the Robot Controller and the Operator Interface.
This includes:
- controlling the robot's operations using a robot controller that has analog and digital I/O
- controlling the behavior of the Bot based on the input of sensors and programming to modify systems (e.g drivetrain, turret, etc.)
- providing real-time feedback to the operator on robot performance
- providing post-competition feedback to be used in analysis
- providing for testing and analysis
- providing autonomous modes
Programming
Robot Controller
The Robot Controller (RC) is where the actual processor is. It takes sensor inputs and also outputs PWM to Victor speed controllers which controls motors. It has PWM outputs, Analog inputs, and Digital input/outputs. Analog inputs are for things which require a range, such as potentiometers. Digital is for buttons, like limit switches. For the 2007 season, we are using Digital input to select different autonomous modes by way of a BCD Dip switch. Since there can be a lot of wires going to and from the RC, we found it a good idea to allocate the different ports. Below you see our PWM allocation and our Analog allocation for the 2007 game.
Operator Console
The Operator Interface (OI) is the human-robot interface. It enables the operators to have control over the robot functions, such as driving. There are 8 LEDs available for output which can be used so that the operators know certain conditions about the bot. This year, we spent more time on allocating OI functions so we could be better organized and would always plug everything in the same way each time.
LabView
We used LabView to experiment with different various sensors and played around with the robot simulation package which was available.
Here is a video (LabView Test) of one of our initial attempts to better understand how to use LabView. With the setup in the image to the right and with the DAQ, we were able to detect when the trigger button of the joystick was pushed, and how the voltage changed then one moved the joystick forwards and backwards.
