Motor control without encoders using stereo camera odom?
Hi, so I just wanted to reach out to the community and ask a question regarding motor control. I'm currently creating an outdoor rover using the Wildthumper 6WD chassis (without encoders) for my project and my question is does it make sense to get encoders or go without encoders. For reference assume I will be in grass terrain where motors can slip more easily.
Suppose I do go without encoders, what are my chances of decent control outdoors just with an IMU and a Stereo Camera (and maybe a lidar). My thought is that with my current setup is that I won't use encoders and I will use the Zed camera I have to determine my velocity and instead tell the motor controller node that instead of encoder ticks it should use my velocity info from the Zed. Does this sound reasonable? I understand that people tend to use encoders in these situations, but the chassis I use isn't fit to house them and also I do have a fear of them slipping.
If your curious what i'm using here are the hardware specs: -Zed Camera (Standard) -Razor IMU 0 -Jetson Xavier (ROS Melodic, 18.04) -Logitech Camera -Roboclaw 2x30A -Wild Thumper Chassis 6WD (encoder less)
Short answer, Use encoders. It is impossible to reliably control the speed of your wheels without them, you cannot detect wheel slippage without them. The more complex visual sensors your describe cannot help with these two tasks.