This week, I worked on the robot’s movement. I received new H-Bridges this week that replaced the faulty ones I was using last week. I tested connection points between the Teensy microcontroller and the motors. I got all 4 motors to work synchronously. I wrote functions to make the robot move in various directions. I tested the motors’ encoders and found that there was an error with them. I believe it was due to the connection between the Teensy microcontroller and the motors, so I ordered a Dupont connector kit that I hope will solve this issue. I also wrote code that handles interrupts and reads commands from a USB device to control the movements of the robot. This mimics the communication between the Raspberry Pi 5 and Teensy controller, considering we don’t have a Raspberry Pi 5 yet.
Overall, I am a week behind compared to the Gantt chart. I realized that encoders and PID control aren’t needed for the interim demo, so I am focusing on other aspects of the project in order to be demo-ready. Next week, I will work on presenting our interim demo, along with regaining progress when the Raspberry Pi 5 arrives, in regards to the communication between the microcontrollers. Also, I plan on figuring out the issue with the encoders.