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Status Updates: 11/13/09

Weeks of 11/07/09 - 11/13/09

  • Subversion Walkthrough - James
    • See Wiki -> Reference -> ReferenceSubversion for details
      • Windows: install TortoiseSVN
        • uses right-click context menu
      • Linux, Mac: install Subversion (SVN)
        • svn ** commands (use "svn help" for list)
    • key directories:
      • /trunk/code/behaviors/template
      • /trunk/code/behaviors/formation-control
      • /trunk/code/projects/libdragonfly
  • SURG - Formation Control - Nico, Austin
    • Three formations: Circles, Secret Service, Dynamic Formations
    • See link for details
    • Using Echo's code for Circles
      • using beacon robot to form around
      • rangefinders are noisy -> use center/beacon robot for wireless coordination
    • John's Push-Pull
      • coming along slowly
  • Library/Wireless Clean-up - David, Chris, James, Brad, Evan, Ben, Abe
    • Two modes (fast & reliable, like UDP & TCP)
      • Automatic error checking, resending packets (look at what XBee provides for us)
    • See link for more details
    • Update wireless API and make available on website
  • Filter Design - Emily
    • Results for constant data from rangefinders are in:
      • Median filter performs the best
      • Butterworth is completely unreliable for the first 10-ish cycles, but good after
    • However, these results may not hold when the data is not constant
      • For example, different filters miss peaks and valleys in the data
      • Need to create more test data to determine which filters perform best when the data changes
    • Meeting with George to develop more/better filter tests
  • Init Refactor - Brad
    • Created a branch to troubleshoot initialization function dependencies
    • Will add debugging statements to the library to diagnose BOM issues
  • Add BOM Vector Function to Library - John
    • Used in Push-Pull
    • X-Y coordinate plane superimposed on BOM, use vector for velocity
    • Susceptible to inconsistent detectors and IR noise b/c it relies on detected intensity
      • Store per-detector offset/bias on robots
  • Controls Library - Austin
    • Generic PID control library on robot?
      • Maybe just for velocity control of the motors
    • Get slides from George for presentation for Colony (or get George to do it?)
  • ADC Prescalar Testing - Evan
    • Once every 500ms at different (constant) voltage levels
    • Constantly (stress test, see if heat introduces noise) at different voltage levels
    • Constantly over extended period of time (5 minutes) at different voltage levels
    • Varying input voltage over extended period of time (use function generator)
    • Show results next week
  • Remove Analog Loop - James, Evan
    • Timer-based ADC Scheduling
    • Change analog_get8 to return a UINT8 instead of an INT (we only need 8 bits, not 16)
  • Rangefinders
    • Merge new look-up table into Trunk - Dan
      • Doesn't use bias yet -- Dan needs help with EEPROM
    • Test newly installed rangefinders - Megan, Dan
      • IR5 on Bot4 doesn't work, all others work
      • Graphs coming soon
    • Make tool to calculate offset of new IR sensors
  • Makefile Architecture Rewrite - David, Brad
    • Re-architect Makefile structure in repository to use centralized model
    • Auto-rebuild of library when changes are made to source files
      • Option to force rebuild, if you think it's needed ("make library")
    • Added "make debug" option in the init_refactor branch
      • typing "make debug" will rebuild the library with debugging symbols
      • These will activate a bunch of macros like DRAGONFLY_DEBUG_PRINTLN() which can be used to print debug messages nicely from the library