Field Testing!

I know there are not any readers, but I hope someone reads this eventually :)

Anyway - today I was outside doing some field-testing.

I know I am really behind with photos, etc. They will be added! I have taken more photos and even some preliminary video.

Today I have learned more than I can imagine about the routing algorithm, and the car as a platform.

I have ran into many problems, come up with many solutions, and am still working.

The current problem is over-steering, and over correction. When the car turns too sharply, and GPS is polled a second later - it appears that the car was traveling no where towards the objective.

Since my algorithm is based on the current, previous, and final point - this is a huge problem.

It might make sense to let the algorithm be aware of previous steering, etc.

My current fix for this over-steer issue (which actually makes the car drive in circles..) is to just steer for a moment during "steer cycles" then hold straight.

So instead of turning right for one entire polling cycle (~1 second), I have it turn right for 200ms then go straight for 400ms, then poll again.

This way I adjust the projection of the 'ray'/ path slightly (hopefully by a few degrees).

We will see once I get back out there!

As a teaser, here is a video I made last night in my kitchen - it's just running code to cycle forward/backward/right/left.