This week I completed the following tasks:

  • Improved the previous waymo model
  • Fixed the drive train

Summary

This week, I focused on improving the stability and overall performance of the car. Initially, the wheels were wobbly and lacked proper alignment, which affected the car’s responsiveness. To address this, I fixed issues with the chassis and used joint controllers to test and fine-tune the wheel behavior. Once the wheels were stable, I proceeded to test the drivetrain functionality using the Ackermann steering plugin.

Although the /cmd_vel topic was being published correctly, the car did not respond to the commands as expected. After investigating the issue, I identified incorrect parameters in the configuration. Updating these parameters resolved the problem, and the car responded accurately to the velocity commands. Overall, the tuning and debugging efforts led to a stable and functional system.

Functional Car

Here’s a video of the moving car:

car