Joystick Control Scheme

By Lin

Task: Find a control scheme for the needed actions

We've mostly been focusing on mechanical aspects on the robot recently, including the 3D printed parts and positioning, so we discussed which actions should be used on what buttons of the controller. In past competitions we've always had problems with one or the other controller disconnecting halfway through, so we figured that the controllers shouldn't have specific actions paired to them. Both would be able to use all the functions needed to drive, meaning that if one broke, the robot would still work. However, this means that our number of buttons are halved, so we will have to be creative in our assignments. Because we use a tank drive system, both joysticks on the controller are taken up, leaving the d-pad, shoulder buttons, and four colored buttons.

autonomous-no button	deploying lift and beater bar
? buttons, each toggles	3 levels for balls to drop from for rolling goal heights
joysticks, already coded & functional	tank drive
1 button, toggle off/on	Beater bar intake
1 button, toggle disengaged/engaged	secure rolling goal
? buttons, 3 states, off/up/reverse	lift

Reflections:

Most of these seem to only take one button each, but we are still figuring out how we will make the gates work. That means we don't know exactly what buttons will be needed. The gates and lift are the most problematic because they have 3 states, and will take more than a simple toggle. We may be using a cycle for the gates, starting at the bottom with each button press opening the next gate and wrapping around.