RC14Firmware

Overview

The 2011 firmware will be upgraded to allow the use of new features and modifications made for the 2014 fleet.

Integrated Single-chip IMU

For the 2014 control boards a 9-axis IMU will be used:

• "MPU-9150 9-Axis IMU (Gyro, Accel, & Compass)"

Local Robot "Vision"

A few "vision" sensors to aid with local ball tracking is also considered for the 2014 model:

• Very-close-range proximity sensor
• High precision motion detector
• Color sensor

Improving Motor Control

Low level motor control and error detection, although already present, can be improved

• Current monitoring can be used to prevent motor or motor driver damage
• Adding a pair of optical flow sensors can be used as an additional input for error checking and cross-referencing to designate which sensor is returning faults
  • Currently, the encoder faults and hall faults are not 100% accurate as to which is having a fault unless a very expected error case occurs

Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR)

The ball sensor occassionally receives false positives or false negatives depending on the lighting conditions of the field
To reduce the frequency of this occurring, the IR emitter will be pulsed using a pseudo-random sequence using LFSR. The detector side will be filtered to detect the pulse when there is no ball. If there is no ball and the sensor receives an incorrect pattern, the firmware can distinguish a fault and rely on ssl-vision to kick.

Resources

• "MPU-9150 9-Axis IMU (Gyro, Accel, & Compass)"
• "Linear Feedback Shift Register"