Move the robot using the Move Steering block. We explore what the different values for Steering mean and how to use them. We also explore how the motor is configured to run for a number of rotations or seconds and what is the difference.
- 01 Oct 2015
This program uses the Move Steering block to controll the robot to move. Download and run the program.
We are currently in our back to basic tutorial, where we introduce much of the things that we assume most of the students know about the EV3 hardware and software and last we finished at moving the robot. We did a few turns with the robot, we moved the motors back and forward and today we'll make a second video on the general principles of moving and then we'll continue with more advanced things for the competitions, but let's first take a look at more way we can move our robot.
Previously we used the Large motor block, this one here for moving motor D and motor A. Then we used the Tank block. For moving motor A and motor D and we configured to move motor A with the power of 50, and motor D with the power of 50 but reversed for 2 rotations. There's one more block and this is the Move steering block. We take the Move steering block from here
and we again control motor A and motor D. Now there is some difference between Move tank and Move steering as you can see from the different properties. We can configure the number of rotations that we would like the motor to do, for example, 2, but in the Move steering we can configure how do the motor steer compared to each other. Whether one of the motors moves faster than the other motor and that's interesting, because we can say that we would like one of the motors to move faster than the other and in this way to steer the whole robot. It takes some experiments here with this block in order to learn the values, what does the value 100 means, it means that one of the motors is moving in the opposite direction than the other motor, but with very small value of the steering like 20 you would see a movement that is slightly on the right. Let's add the Move steering block, 50, 2 rotations and we steer with the value of 20. Let's see the behavior of our robot. I'll now download and run the program.
As you saw the robot is turning, so it's not right, but left. One of the motors, motor A is moving faster than motor D. Let's start the program.
It's a nice turn. We've explored the Large motor, the Tank block and the Steering block. There are a few more options but I have to return you to the program. The additional options, properties, configurations of the different blocks also matter and these are, for example, let's take the Move steering block, for the Move steering we have
5 different options when we are turning the motor. We can, first, turn it off, turn it on, turn it on for a number of seconds, and in this way we are moving the robot for a number of seconds forward. We can also move the robot for a number of degrees, until the motor rotates a number of degrees, or a number of rotations and one rotation is 360 degrees. We can choose between these 3 different options, for example, number of seconds and we can configure for 5 seconds. Five seconds are not always equal to 5 rotations, it might be true sometime that rotations are equal to seconds but it might not be true, for example, if you move the robot with the power of 100 for both motors and we move this motor for 5 seconds, both motors will probably do more than 5 rotations, because they are moving for 5 seconds with the maximum power. If we move the robot with the power of 10, so this is very slowly and we are moving the robot for 5 seconds, probably we'll have the motors turn only for about 1 rotation. Let's check this. Turning the both motors with the power of 10 for 5 seconds. Download, run the program.
This is it. Very slowly, moving with 10% of the maximum power and moving for 5 seconds and these are not 5 rotations. Let's do this again.
If I now start the program.
You can see that the wheel is turning 1, 1 and a half rotation, so it's not turning for 5 rotations, it is turning for 5 seconds, not 5 rotations. With this I will conclude, the basic introduction to moving with the motors and moving the robot with the motors. Now I'll add a few tasks in the next video so that you can experiment and learn all the options of the different blocks.
Courses and lessons with this Tutorial
This Tutorial is used in the following courses and lessons