I am working on building a simple robot. Basically, I have a small platform with

Question

I am working on building a simple robot. Basically, I have a small platform with two motorized wheels and rotary encoders on the edges. So, using the rotary encoders I can estimate the velocity of the two wheels. I then need to use this information to calculate the path that the robot follows. I am having difficulty working out the equation to define the robot's total velocity. I'm basically looking at it as a rigid bar of length 2L, where the velocities of the right and left edges (v1 and v2 respectively) are known. It is also constrained such that v1//v2. And ? is the angle of the bar with the x axis. I believe the equation for ? should be: ?? = (v1-v2)/L And, that the magnitude of the total velocity should be the minimum of v1 and v2, plus the component of v2 tangent to the rotation. v = min(v1,v2) + (v1-v2)/2 Then I just calculate the path it takes by integrating. I'm sorry if my attempted answer isn't very clear, but I think the question should be. Calculate the velocity of the centre point of a rigid bar where the velocities of it's 2 end points are known, and are always parallel.

Explanation / Answer

I actually solved my issue. d?/dt = (v1 - v2)/2L, and the magnitude of the velocity (v_T) is just (1/2)(v1+v2). Finding d?/dt is fairly straight forward, and I determined the total velocity using super position. The path can then be calculated by integration where

v_y = v_T cos ?
v_x = -v_T sin ?

I used python to simulate the path and everything seems to make sense, so I think the issue is solved. Now to learn how to write a path finding algorithm..

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.