How to make ACMR go straight ahead?

[danielamaria20]

Hi, can you please tell me how I make ACMR always go in straight line. Its just so I can learn a lit bit more about is moving and make the changes that I want.

Thanks a lot

[coppelia]

Hello Daniela,

You cannot make the ACMR5 go straight, because its wheels are not actuated. The only thing that is actuated are the motors in-between the individual segments! So, unless the ACMR5 is on a slope, it cannot go straight, it will have to always do some sinusoidal movements to go forward. This is a little bit similar to a real snake, which is not able to just go straight (the real snake however uses a different movement pattern/mechanism than the ACMR5).

Have a look at how the real ACM-R5 moves (the little black wheels on the fins are all passive!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2qm7-HFHt4

Cheers

[danielamaria20]

Im thinking to do with a zig zag code do you advise it or its better if I do with time simulation and calculate the angles with that?

thanks a lot

[coppelia]

For the control algorithms we are not specialists ;) We put a lot of effort to develop the tool (V-REP), and only provide some control algorithms as examples, because others are much better and specialized for that! Also, some of the control algorithms in the demo scenes are developped by others than us.

But in your specific case, I'd really go with a shifting sinusoid (shifting along the snake body), as in the demo code.

Cheers