Designing an operator control board
From FIRSTwiki
A good OI(Operator Interface) has everything you need to communicate effectively with your robot. Communication is a two way thing, you need to be able to tell your robot what to do, while it tells you whats going on.
GIVING YOUR ROBOT INPUT the first thing you need to decide is how you will drive your robot. will you use tank drive or one hand drive? tank drive is where the primary driver has two joysticks, one for each side (forward back only). one hand drive is where there is one joystick only, with a forward back motion, and a side to side motion that gives more power to certain sides so your robot turns. There is also usually a secondary driver as well, to manage all of your game specifi systems (arms, cannons, other contraptions). they might want a joystick of they want to control the amount of pwer to somthing, ie accelerating a wheel, speed of movement on an arm. they could also use a toggle box (keep in mind you have 4 ports) for certain on/off things. if you have a pneumatic piston that is either out or in, for example, that would be best controlled with a toggle switch. the FIRST joysticks do come with buttons on them (4 of them, trigger, thumb, and two reaching thumbs) so your secondary driver can use those with the regular joystick functions, or jsut to avoid the hassle of fabricating a toggle box.
GETTING BACK INFORMATION FROM YOUR ROBOT Their are a plethora of lights on the OI itself, and they can change colors and flash and all kinds of neatthings, but your programers need to do it. how do you tell if your whirling wheel across the field of confusion before you is spining forwards or backwards? simple, have your robot tell you which direction it is moving by changing colors. anything you want to know, whehter it be the status of a system on your bot or whether your camera is locked on (yes at the NASA/VCU regional, a team won the innovation in control systems award for glasses that hook up to their OI with a light on the that turned on when their cannon was locked on target) your OI can blink a light and alert you. you can also put sensors ont eh sides of your robot so your OI can tell you if you are hiting anything! using the lights wisely, and not programing them to flash in a pretty pattern can make the difference in a close match.
PHYSICALLY DESIGNING THE OI BOARD OIs are usually quite large. many of them are simply atached to a plank of wood to keep everything together. you can get more complicated though if you desire. folding OI's allow better ease of transportation, while looking quite stylish. desining a three-fold OI, with the primary drivers joystick(s) on one side, and the secondary's on the other with the OI computer in the middle, folding everyhting in and connecting at the top to form a triangle is a very simple way to do it(dont forget the radio!). there are otjer ways that team have experimented with, including folding entirely into a box that is completely inclosed and decorated. it is up to the team to decide how much emphasis they want to place on designing their OI, but you must keep in mind that OI's can function with merely a joystick and the OI and a radio, but robots without a gearbox dont work as well.
- I realize i have bad grammer and spelling, but i was rushed and more worried about people getting good info than a good experiance. please edit/format it if you have the time, it owuld really be apreciated
