LOG

Fixed Obstacle Avoidance!!

Main error was the angle: to obtain a mean angle from the vector of obstacles, we cannot make a mean value from the angle values:
- if there are some at 5° and some at 355° the mean value should be zero, not 180°
- --> fixed using mean values of reaction forces, and then calculating the angle using arctan2
Evaluated if to use a PID controller --> desired distance from obstacle 5m, measured distance given
- Decided to DO NOT so, because integral wouldn't discharge
- We only have limited range measurable, which means we don't see the actual distance if it is larger
- Furthermore we do not want to have a fixed obstacle distance of 5m, but of AT LEAST 5m, so controller wouldn't make any sens
Decided to keep NON-LINEAR control action, i.e. governed by the inverse of the obstacle distance
By smoothing repulsive force action with a Low-Pass (cut-off freq = 1Mhz) we obtained satisfying results FOR OUR USE CASE
- Decided to NOT investigate further papers and NOT implement a more sophisticated obstacle avoidance algorithm, because it is not our use case.
- i.e. obstacle should be an exceptional case during our mission, where a rudimentary O.A. behavior is good enough

Day 9