Discussions

What is PID Control?

• PID which stands for proportional, integral, derivative is used in a variety of applications from measuring temperature to regulating and processing data. In our case, we used PID control to help us control the robot's actions and response to the environment.

What PID values did you choose and why?

• Higher D values means that the robot focuses on decreasing the number of turns made and instead focuses on small angle turns and straight lines. We chose a really high D because we liked the control that the robot demonstrated on various courses. The P controls the oscillation which determines how jerky the robot is. Speed (S) was adjusted to fit a specific course. In general, our speed was high for courses that didn't have sharp turns like the circuit or drag race tracks. For tracks like the frequency sweep, we drastically lowered our speed because our goal wasn't to go fast, but to make it to a specific point. For integral (I), we often didn't mess with because it would make the robot act eratic

How did you adjust speed and PID for different tracks?

• For the circle track, we chose the highest speed because the movement was repetative and this was easy to calibrate. We only had to worry about one consistent curve that we knew was unchanging. The I controls how frequent it goes from right to left we want that low for a track like a circle because it keeps the robot stable. If we were to make this value high, then the robot would spin too much in one direction and then get lost.

• For the frequency sweep (or similar tracks) we kept the speed low because we weren't worried about how fast we covered the track, but rather how far we could get on a single run. Since "I" controls how frequent we translate between right and left, we made sure to calibrate "I" to ensure the robot kept itself on the line.