Highest scored questions
47,102 questions
92
votes
4
answers
19k
views
Why are Mars rovers so slow?
Mars rovers are typically very slow. Curiosity, for example, has average speed of about 30 meters per hour.
Why is it designed so slow? Is it because of some specific power restrictions or for other ...
- 1,201
84
votes
9
answers
350k
views
What are good strategies for tuning PID loops?
Tuning controller gains can be difficult, what general strategies work well to get a stable system that converges to the right solution?
- 1,357
70
votes
5
answers
12k
views
Why do I need a Kalman filter?
I am designing an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will include several types of sensors:
3-axis accelerometer
3-axis gyroscope
3-axis magnetometer
horizon sensor
GPS
downward facing ultrasound.
A ...
- 6,449
61
votes
2
answers
114k
views
Why are capacitors added to motors (in parallel); what is their purpose?
I've seen many motors having capacitors attached in parallel in bots. Apparently, this is for the "safety" of the motor. As I understand it, all these will do is smoothen any fluctuations--and I doubt ...
- 1,833
45
votes
4
answers
123k
views
What is stall current and free current of motors?
What are the stall and free currents of an electric motor? For example, this Vex motor lists its stall and free currents at the bottom of the page.
I think I understand the general idea, but a ...
- 1,564
44
votes
11
answers
8k
views
Programming Robots with JavaScript
As somebody who is spending the majority of his time programming in JavaScript, what's the best route to get into small-robotics without needing to deviate too much from my current language focus?
...
- 681
44
votes
2
answers
70k
views
How to choose the right propeller/motor combination for a quadcopter?
There are many sites which explain briefly this problem and even propose combinations. I however would like a much more detailed explanation. What is going to give my quad the most agility? Do I need ...
- 543
43
votes
4
answers
26k
views
What is the difference between Kinect for Windows and Kinect for XBox?
As I see there is a huge price gap between the two \$223 vs \$99 (at amazon).
My intention is to use one of those from Ubuntu linux to perform depth sensing, navigation etc. and naturally I prefer ...
- 846
38
votes
11
answers
58k
views
Preventing leaks in motor shafts for underwater bots
Whenever building an aquatic bot, we always have to take care to prevent leakages, for obvious reasons. Now, holes for wires can be made watertight easily--but what about motors? We can easily seal ...
- 1,833
37
votes
4
answers
47k
views
Quadcopter liPo battery weight/capacity trade off
I'm trying to find where additional battery capacity becomes worthless in relation to the added weight in terms of a quadcopter. Currently with a 5500 mAh battery, 11.1V, I can get between 12 minutes ...
- 1,005
33
votes
2
answers
26k
views
How to fuse linear and angular data from sensors?
My team and I are setting up an outdoor robot that has encoders, a commercial-grade IMU, and GPS sensor. The robot has a basic tank drive, so the encoders sufficiently supply ticks from the left and ...
- 2,192
33
votes
1
answer
8k
views
Why are Servo Motors so noisy?
I was working on a project to make a bedside night light out of a stuffed butterfly or bird. I was making a mechanism to make the wings flap with a servo motor and some small gears. The servo motor ...
- 433
32
votes
6
answers
63k
views
Which type of actuator will be suitable for a very strong robot arm?
I wish to build a robotic arm that can lift a useful amount of weight (such as 3-6 kg on an arm that can extend to approx 1.25 meters). What actuators are available to accomplish this? The main ...
- 420
32
votes
14
answers
17k
views
Can ROS run on a Raspberry Pi?
Can ROS run on a Raspberry Pi?
ROS is resigned to run on a network of machines, with different machines, even different cores on the same machine doing different jobs. Can one of those machines be a ...
- 6,449
31
votes
3
answers
10k
views
What is a suitable model for two-wheeled robots?
What is a suitable model for two-wheeled robots? That is, what equations of motion describe the dynamics of a two-wheeled robot.
Model of varying fidelity are welcome. This includes non-linear models,...
- 3,104