Precise Vehicle Control Using Electronics

[festschrift]

I do not know if this post belongs here, but it does deal with electronics. I am building a car about 30cm long and 20cm wide. This car has to go a specified distance and must stop as closely as possible to this distance. I have built previous vehicle and found out that there are only two things to consider; 1) the car moving left and right, 2) and stopping +/- 2 cm to the correct spot. For the new car, i want to use some electronic device that can give me some data, so that the car can adjust itself while moving. The first car is has 4 wheels with a microprocessor that is programmed to run a stepper motor on the left and right back wheels. With the data from the electronic device i want to be able to calculate the speed the opposite wheels should be moving at, so that the car compensates on its own. I also want something else to be able to make sure the car stops at the right distance. If anyone knows of a device that can give me this type of data, please let me know. Thanks. If there is a better place for this post, let me know and i will post it there.

 

[berkeman]

This is the best place for your post. If you are using stepper motors, you will know from the number of steps that you drive how far you have gone. Why do you need left-right correction? Are you not able to just aim the car accurately before starting it?

 

[festschrift]

I did do that for the stepper motor, but the car is still overshooting and i need a way to correct that. It may be a calculation problem, but I'm not sure. The bigger problem is the left-right movement. Since the car was not built perfectly, and no floor is perfectly level, i cannot easily aim the car on the first shot to go where i want it to. I'm hoping there is some device that can detect this left-right motion so that the motors can fix the problem on its own. Even with aiming with a mounted rifle scope, it is still hard to get the car to go where it needs to, mainly because of the floor. Thanks for the reply and sorry for my late response.