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Subject: 
Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Fri, 13 Nov 1998 16:39:02 GMT
Original-From: 
Eric Brandwine <ERICB@stopspammersMITRE.ORG>
Viewed: 
2423 times
  
"jsk" == John Scott Kjellman <jkjellman@ameritech.net> writes:
At one point, in the distant past, I saw plans for a gear box that
used either 2 or 3 differentials, I do not remember which.

2 motors were used, 1 to drive both axles, one for steering.

axle1 == motor1 + motor2
axle2 == motor1 - motor2

With motor2 off, 1 on, the vehicle (most likely treaded), will track
straight, in forward or reverse.  With motor1 off, 2 on, the vehicle
will spin in place.  Combinations of the 2 will do the obvious.

In order to regain the power of having 2 drive motors, you can run 2
motors off one output port, and couple the shafts together.  Of
course, that brings the total motor count to 3, rather than 2, but it
still only occupies 2 of the motor outputs.

Any one know of this?  The reason that I bring it up is that I do not
own a rotation sensor, and am too cheap to buy one.

I would rather use an R/C servo for steering anyway.  I have just not
had time to hook my 'scope up to one of the motor outputs to see if
there is some simple way to decode the PWM.  8 power levels in 2
directions + stop == 17 possible states.  Figure you need about
60degrees for useful steering, that gives you 3.5 degrees of
resolution.  _Should_ work.

I already have servo code for a couple of microcontrollers, and a
couple of servos with epoxied on lego plates from an ill fated run in
with the Handy Board.....

ericb


jsk> Tim,
jsk> Instead of using the differential for angle sensors, why not use it to
jsk> allow a single motor to drive both wheels?  Then a single angle sensor
jsk> coupled with a motor could drive the steering mechanism.  This setup
jsk> would be very similar to a radio controlled car.

jsk> Just a thought.

jsk> KJohn

jsk> Tim Rueger wrote:

Hi,

One of the first things I ran into when making a mobile 'bot using one
motor for each of two drive wheels was the mismatch in their speed.
Needless to say, it's a nice way to make curved path.  Not what I want.

So I've got one of those nifty angle sensors.  I'd like to use it for
feedback from the wheels to tell a motor to slow down when it gets too
far ahead of the other one.  An obvious thing to do is to use two
angle sensors and subtract them, but I'd like to do it with one sensor,
given there are only 3 sensor inputs.

A simple mechanical way to do this is to use a differential gear,
driving it backwards.  One input gets the rotation of one wheel, and
the other input gets an inverted rotation of the other wheel.  With
equal wheel rotations, there is no movement of the differential
housing.

Unfortunately, gear slop keeps this from working well for me.  Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
-Tim

--
Tim and/or Shelley Rueger - rueger "at" io.com
WWW page: http://www.io.com/~rueger/


--
Eric Brandwine, Systems Engineer | What is the definition of an engineer?
EricB@Mitre.org                  |   Someone who solves a problem you
MITRE Corporation, McLean VA     |   didn't know you had in a way you
(703) 883-3319 F: (703) 883-1917 |   don't understand.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
 
-- ===...=== Don Forth ( Klaatu ) email: dforth@caro.net Home Page: (URL) Brandwine wrote in message ... (...) Check out - (URL) has an example of a treaded vehicle that uses this type of system one motor for forward and backward motion and one for (...) (26 years ago, 14-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
 
Tim, Instead of using the differential for angle sensors, why not use it to allow a single motor to drive both wheels? Then a single angle sensor coupled with a motor could drive the steering mechanism. This setup would be very similar to a radio (...) (26 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)

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