3pi get line position

As I think that the readLine function adds some unecessary errors for the lineare loop back of the PID I have modified the code

int get_position(unsigned int *sensor_values, unsigned char readMode)
{
	unsigned char i, on_line = 0;
	int32_t avg; // this is for the weighted total, which is long
	                   // before division
	int sum; // this is for the denominator which is <= 32000
	static int last_value=-2500; // assume initially that the line is left.
	static int destvec[5]= {-2500,-1000,0,1000,2500}; //respect the distance between the sensors

	read_line_sensors_calibrated(sensor_values, readMode);
	avg = 0; 
        sum = 0;
  
	for(i=0;i<5;i++) {
		int value = sensor_values[i];
	
		// keep track of whether we see the line at all
		if(value > 150) {
			on_line += (1 <<i); //by that we know which sensor
		}
		
		// only average in values that are above a noise threshold
		if(value > 50) {
		    avg += (int32_t)(value) * destvec[i];
			sum += value;
		}
	}

	if(!on_line)
	{
		play_frequency(800,250,14);
		return last_value; //lets assume we do the right if we are blind
	}

	last_value = (avg/sum);
	return last_value;
}

the reason is simply that the sensors do not have the same distance to each other. so once the line reachs the outer sensors …error correction should get a much bigger value.

Additional I added the speed component to the PID. The idea behind that is simply that the distance between
2 measurements increases with the speed. In general it would be better to take the real distance between 2 measurements, but as there is no wheel encoder or other distance measurement …speed is not the worst.
Much better would be a calibrated motor and a timed sensor measurement.

and I renamed the function as readLine could easily mixed with read_line …but the purpose of that readLine is to get the line position.

works fine at full speed:
youtu.be/LJKvO9eZi6E

What i also want to add is a special lost line mode. I would slow down the motors or stop once a near field search
did not bring any success.

Hello, daubi.

I’m glad you are having success getting your 3pi to perform better.

I don’t understand this line:

on_line += (2^i); //by that we know which sensor

That line of code will have no effect if i==2. Is that what you wanted?

Maybe you really wanted this, which would make each bit in on_line correspond to a sensor:

on_line |= (1 << i);

–David

uppss …I should have checked c syntax …
yes …I wrote first 1 << i …but was not sure if I have to care about bit/byte ordering