REU: Improving straight line travel in a miniature wheeled robot
REU: Improving straight line travel in a miniature wheeled robot
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Date
2012-08-10
Authors
Gessler, Katie
Sabelhaus, Andrew
Bergbreiter, Sarah
Advisor
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Abstract
The TinyTeRP is a miniature robotics platform
with modular sensing capabilities. Prior generations of the
TinyTeRP have experienced various problems in assembly
process, materials selection, and their fundamental design.
These problems are addressed by choosing 3D printing as the
new manufacturing method and steel wire for the new axle. The
TinyTeRP’s ability to travel in a straight line using open loop
control is studied. After 1.37 m of travel in the x direction, the
TinyTeRP was as close as 4.69 cm to or as far as 31.9 cm from
the ideal ending position (a straight line), indicating that open
loop control is a poor method for controlling a straight line
trajectory. Comparing data on the angle of the trajectory
collected from position data from the vision table to data
collected from the gyroscope indicated that the gyroscope tracks
the robot’s angle of motion well. Hence, using the gyroscope for
closed loop control of the TinyTeRP’s motion is possible.