FTC 7314 Engineering Notebook 2015-10-05

Competition Season Meeting

Meeting Date	Meeting Time	Location	Attendees
5-October-2015	6:00-9:00pm	TCHS Brandywine	Amal, Trevor, Braden, Trent, Myles, Wade, Akhila, Jacob, Bennett, Daniel

Objectives / Systems	Hypotheses, tests, observations, conclusions, plans
Drive Train	Daniel, Myles,and Bennett worked on the drive train, they managed to get it up the mountain however, they were only able to do it once. They were happy because this was the first time they tried to get up the mountain and getting up successfully once meant a lot to us.
Debris Collector	Amal, Trevor, Trent, Wade, and Braden were working on the debris collector. Amal, and Wade were cutting Surgical Tubs. Amal, Trevor, Trent, Wade, and Braden cut plastic for the intake. Amal, Trevor, Trent, Wade, and Braden were woking on the pickup system, we had gotten the covayer to run when linked up to the moter. were getting close to finishing the surgical tube whacker. braden worked on the intake to pull game objects to scoring and storage system. braden also learned it was to high and had to lower the axel.
Sample Autonomous Plan	Jacob and Akhila, with the help of Mr. Abersold, decided to conceptualize a sample autonomous plan for getting to the beacon. A few meetings before, they had concluded that they would have to devise a method to get the robot close to the beacon, considering that the sensors were really short range. The following is the plan for the base of the floor autonomous program. Step 1: Go forward (using encoders) x distance. X should equal around five or six inches> Any greater, and the robot would be more susceptible to crossing over the red/blue boundary line. Step 2: Turn, using compass, about 45 degrees. Step 3: Go forward, using encoders, about 81 inches. If the robot starts a little before the center (exact measurement to be determined) then 81 inches on a 45 degree angle gets it about on the edge of the beacon boundary tape. Go forward until RED, using the color sensor. Then find white line. The white line is a good place to start before trying to sense the beacon lights, but the team hasn't tested the sensor's ability to read white, or clear. However, they do know that the sensor reads the red/blue tape really well.

Tasks

Reflections

Programming

The programming team started the meeting on a good note. They finally finished setting up the Java/Android environment on everyone's computer, and will not have to spend much more meeting time watching things install or load!
The first task that was attempted was switching the arcade drive code to tank drive. This was a relatively easy fix, and didn't take very long. However, later in the meeting, Jacob and Akhila realized that they neglected to change the x values to y values (horizontal v. vertical), which messed up the driving controls. It was fixed later on, and taught the valuable lesson of always checking work, especially for small mistakes.
The team then learned about encoders from mentor Gary. Because the color sensors are really short range, they figured that something else would have to be used in order to get the robot close to the beacon, and encoders seemed like the best option. Jacob was new to the subject, and although Akhila had seen them before, it was really great to understand how encoders work. They learned that the kinds of encoders already in the robot were quadrature encoders, and also the difference and benefits of these encoders of others. Gary also taught them about gyroscopes and compasses, which will help with the accuracy of turns in autonomous.
After learning about the different kinds of sensors, the team, with the help of mentor George, tried to make a sample autonomous path. (See above for detail) This really helped to visualize where the autonomous is going. Next meeting, the team will start to write some basic code around this path, and see where it goes from there!