SettledUtil

One of the most important factors in utilizing feedback controllers is establishing proper exit conditions. If a feedback controller decides that it has reached its target and exits too early, then the target will never be met. Alternatively, if the controller takes too long to realize that it's at its goal, the best case scenario is that the movement is just a bit slower, but in the worst case the movement may never be considered complete, leaving the motors humming indefinitely.

OkapiLib's SettledUtil provides three different parameters for tuning this exit condition: atTargetError, atTargetDerivative, and atTargetTime. We'll take a further look at tuning these three parameters.

atTargetError

atTargetError is the maximum error value for the controller to consider itself "settled", or conclusively at its target. This value can also be thought of as the precision for the controller's movement; if a controller with an atTargetError value of 10 is moving towards a target of 100, then the movement could be considered done at any value between 90 and 110.

It would be ideal to be able to set 0 for this value and theoretically ensure that the controller ends up exactly at its target with every movement, but this is a very good way to end up in the indefinite motor humming scenario detailed at the top of the tutorial. At the very least this value needs to be greater than the mechanical slop in the system (the amount that the sensor can move without encountering resistance from the motors), but typically this value will be closer to the default of 50.

To disable this check, set the maximum value for a double.

atTargetDerivative

atTargetDerivative is the maximum change in error that the controller can be observing and still consider itself settled. This value helps prevent scenarios where the controller considers itself settled while quickly passing by the target and oscillating.

To disable this check, set the maximum value for a double.

atTargetTime

atTargetTime is the minimum amount of time that the controller must stay in the range of Target +- atTargetError to be considered settled. This also helps prevent a false settled scenario when oscillating around the target.

To disable this check, set 0.