PID Velocity Motor Controller

Over the last few days I have been working on a simple PID velocity DC motor controller that will be my entry to the Trossen Robotics contest. While it is not a project that is new or novel I feel that documenting and sharing the creation of the full system from top to bottom better fits the contest's judging criteria.

This post will serve as an update on the progress I have made on the project thus far.

My setup for development consists of a MINI robocontroller from Vanadium Labs, DC Gearmotor from Pololu and wheels from BaneBots. The MINI robocontroller is simply being used as a convenience at the moment allowing me to focus on software rather then hardware. I will be replacing it with a custom PCB in the near future.

PID Controller Development Setup

Fractal Terrain Generation Using The Diamond-Square Algorithm

Continuing on with my experimentation with the fractal mountain range and Mandelbrot set I have set my eyes on generating a 3d fractal landscape with ambitions of moving onto a fractal planet.

 I have been tinkering with the Pyglet python library. Pyglet is a wrapper for the OpenGL (Open Graphics Library).

Shown below is my attempts at visualizing the result of a terrain generated from the diamod-square algorithm

 

First attempt. Has some obvious algorithm errors.

 Second attempt with a revised algorithm.

You can download the python code here.

Generating A Fractal Mountain Range

I stumbled across this page about generating random fractal terrain. I went ahead and made a simple wxpython app to put the ideas I learned into practice. Below is the result and source code.

Gold Rush Turret Taking Shape

Work continues again on Gold Rush's mechanical aspects after a long period of working on electronics and software. My focus has been on creating a robust turret with pan and tilt capability that mounts the Trendnet IP camera and dual Matyo Toy tank guns.

The goal over the next few weeks is to continue to mount all of the required Mech Warfare gear. Once all everything is mounted I can shift focus over towards tuning the walking gaits can remote control.