Every time we've built a robot in the past, we've gone with the good old reliable LeftMotor / RightMotor design. Wanted to try something a little different this year...
Instead of Lm/Rm, what about trying PowerMotor and DirectionMotor?
In vehicular terms this is more traditional - rear wheels provide speed, front wheels point in the desired direction, with kind of a rack & pinion setup. There's got to be a reason it's so popular..
For a test, I made this streamlined design:
Upside: It's slim, and it seems pretty manoeuvrable.
Downside: Compared to the LeftMotor/RightMotor design, this has a massive turning radius. The Lm/Rm design can practically turn within its own space. This thing needs a 3-point turn (or 5 or 7) to spin around in a small space.
Another downside: BrickPi API is pretty limited in what you can do with the code, and the motors themselves have a lot of "wiggle" - they're not built for accuracy. Basically you can ask it to turn 90 degrees, and it will go "meh, that's about 90".
Yet another downside: all of last year's code is made for Lm/Rm and if I'm honest with myself I don't think we've got the time to recode everything just for kicks.
...Despite all this, STEV3 are INNOVATORS and may run down this path a little longer, see where it leads. Stay alert, stay safe!
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