Data Collection and Simulation Comparison
This page will take you though setting up and testing RADA, retrieving the log file and other necessary data to run a simulation of that test and processing the data in MATLAB. Then actually running the simulation of RADA in Simulink.
Setting Up a RADA Test
Testing RADA is not overly difficult once you get the hang of the steps to setup RADA. The following steps may seem like a long process to go from starting the testing process to having completed simulation and plotting of the test results but this whole test procedure (with the exception of battery charging) can be completed in about 15-20 minutes. These steps are meant to be as detailed as possible in order to help new users of RADA to get up and running as quickly as possible.
NOTE: Always run RADA with at least 2 people! The pendulum arm can crash into the ground if the network starts to drop packets and one person cannot give commands to RADA and spot the pendulum. This is a safety issue for both you and the RADA platform.
Charging batteries
The lab currently uses mostly Hyperion batteries. We charge our batteries with a Hyperion EOS 1420i Net3 battery charger. For some general information about how to use this charger see this video.. In the lab we power this charger using the old Kepco Power supplu because it is the only power supply that we have that can supply enough current. Make sure that the power supply is set to an output voltage between 10.5V-29V.
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| Kepco Power Supply off. | Kepco Power Supply on with correct voltage supply range. |
While the YouTube video linked above should explain how to use the charger. Currently three different Lithium polymer batteries (Lipo): 1600 mAh 2-cell Lipo for the wheels, 2600 mAh 2-cell Lipo for the electronics of Eris, and a 2600 mAh 4-cell Lipo. The 1600 mAh 2-cell Lipo can be charged using memory slot 2 of the charger. The 2600 mAh 2-cell Lipos can be charged using memory slot 3 for fast charging and memory slot 4 for slower charging (use this if the battery gets run really low for 10-20 minutes then switch to fast charging). The 2600 mAh 4-cell Lipo can be charged using memory slot 8. The 1600 mAh 2-cell and 2600 mAr 4-cell generally charge in 10-20 minutes apiece while I generally fine it takes the 2600 mAh 2-cell up to 70 minutes to charge fully.
Setting up the camera system
The camera system is run on the windows computer CO3050-07. You can log into this computer using a local microcart username and password which is not posted here for security reasons but any one who works in the lab should know it. Once logged in look for Tracking TOlls in the start menu or look for the shortcut shown below:
