Rhinobot Use

Introduction

Rhinobot is the team's first competition robot, from the team's first year, 2005.  In honor of the 20th team anniversary (2024), a group of mentors has refurbished the robot to make it run again, and retrofit it with a current generation control system to make it easier to operate with today's hardware.

Status

This section will be updated as fixes/changes take place.

Working

• Driving in teleop
• Arm manual operation, but with sensor-provided limits on range
• Manipulator manual operation
• Emulated Operator interface via Shuffleboard dashboard setup

Not working

• Autonomous anything - Do not enable in autonomous mode - dangerous!
• Auto arm movement
• Auto manipulator movement
• Manipulator sensors - these are not needed for manual arm operations
  • Zeroing switch mounting is off - it will not trigger when passing the zero point as it should
  • Gear tooth sensor is not activating. Electrical issue suspected
• Drive base gear tooth sensors not activating. Electrical issue suspected

Setup

Battery

Robot battery sits at the center-back of the robot, on a velcro pad.  Leads on the battery must face upward when the battery is laying on the larger dimension or else they will interfere with the frame. The original used a battery with velcro adhered to the "bottom" of the battery to interface with that on the polycarb bottom pan of the robot.   For slower movement/use, a battery just sitting in this location without velcro could suffice.

Controls / Operator Interface

Having been reconfigured to use the modern control system (roboRIO), this robot can be operated with a laptop running the 2024 or later Driver Station software like most modern robots.  The radio is also now Wifi based, like all modern team robots.  There is no dedicated controls setup for this robot at this time but here are instructions to set up for operation using team materials:

1. Acquire a team laptop with driver station software. This laptop must have wifi and at least 3 USB-A ports, or a USB hub to provide 3 ports!''''
2. Acquire 3 USB Logitech Attack 3 joysticks.  Like the original robot, traditional Joysticks not gamepads are used to control the robot.
3. Power on robot, connect to robot Wifi.  The wifi name is 1511-Codebot
4. Start Driver Station software
5. Plug in all 3 Joysticks - arrange these in a row, left-to-right
   1. Go to USB tab of Driver Station software
   2. Verify/drag as needed the 3 joysticks to be assigned to 1, 2, 3 left-to-right as you have arranged them. Nothing should be assigned to slot'' '0
   3. '''Verify that the Y-axis on all 3 joysticks is reading as centered when joystick is at rest! If not, calibrate using Windows gamepad control panel - this is important as the robot could drive unexpectedly if not centered!
6. Load Shuffleboard dashboard software. Close any other open dashboard!
7. In shuffleboard, load this layout file:

Operation

• As mentioned in above setup section, operation uses 3 total joysticks
• The left 2 joysticks (IDs 1 and 2) are the drive base controls
• The right-most joystick (ID 3) is the arm control
• The dashboard displays some diagnostics that are mostly useful for troubleshooting

Drive Controls

• This robot is "tank style" drive with 2 sticks independently controlling the left and right sides
• Left 2 joysticks - both of these operate the same way, left controls robot-left drive train, right controls robot-right.
• Y-axis controls drive speed - forward on the stick makes that side go forward, backward goes back
• Pressing either trigger will boost the output speed of both left and right side operation.  Be careful with this!

Arm Controls

• Right-most joystick controls the arm and manipulator
• Originally, there were two ways to move the arm: manually and auto-positioning
  • Due to sensor issues (explained above), auto positioning is broken at present
• Y-axis up will cause the arm to go up, down will cause it to go down
  • This motion is limited by sensor on the arm shoulder
  • NOTE: When going down, move the manipulator so it will not strike the ground or robot body!!
• The manipulator is controlled by 2 buttons in manual operation:
  • Trigger will cause it to rotate one way
  • Button "2" on the top of the joystick (button closest to you on the top of the stick) will cause it to rotate the other way
  • Speed of these rotations is controlled by the Z-axis throttle control on the bottom of the stick
• Auto motions are enacted with the other buttons on the base of the joystick.
  • These are currently not functioning properly due to broken sensors!  DO NOT PRESS THESE as unpredictable motions will occur that could hurt someone or break the robot!
  • If you accidentally press one, simply release the button to terminate the auto motion or disable the robot

Operation Warnings

This section has critical operational guidance to prevent damage to the robot or injury to people in the area!

• Do not enable in autonomous - see status section as to why
• Do not press buttons on base of arm joystick - If you do, release them immediately.  See operation section
• If the arm is traveling too high or low, the sensor has become uncalibrated.  Cease use until it can be serviced.  Continuing to drive the arm in this situation will damage the sensor permanently - in a pinch the set screw on the shaft of the sensor can be loosened and the arm operated manually without the range restrictions in place with extreme caution to not physically go too far.  Driving the arm too high/low will result in permanent damage to the lead screw drive assembly so use extreme caution if you operate with the sensor disabled!