Calculate Angular Change in Circular Motion - algorithm

I am trying to derive an algorithm that will allow me to calculate the angular displacement in circular motion. This is a physical device that I am programming so I do have feedback of the current angular position from 0 - 2pi.I have attached a photo that will help you see what I am trying to achieve (see below). Each time the processor scans through the program updates the tags and then calculates the delta theta by taking Theta2-Theta1 and then stores it into the DeltaTheta tag. The problem is that when I complete a revolution, Theta 2 becomes 0 and Theta 1 is still something like 3pi/2 or so and thus I get a larger Delta Theta than I should. Each time the angle hits the 2 pi mark, it resets to zero. I am using this program to implement an algorithm with Fourier Analysis on a Rockwell CompactLogix PLC. For those of you concerned enough I am programming in RSLogix5000 using the "Structured Text" language. Please see this site for a manual on the language if need be. Structured Text
See sample code below.
ThetaOld = Theta;
Theta = SpindleActPosition; //This is feedback from the motor 0-2*pi
DeltaTheta = Theta2 - Theta1; //This is the "algorithm" I need help with
I also tried this algorithm but found loop-holes in it that did not allow it to work.
DeltaTheta = [(Theta2 - Theta1) + 2*pi] MOD(2*pi)
I believe the MOD operator will be our friend in this but I am unable to find a solution to the problem.
The rest of the code really is irrelevant to solving this problem. Unfortunately by nature of this machine, the angle starts at the 12 o'clock position and then rotates clock-wise. I can't change this.

You just need to add:
IF DeltaTheta < 0 THEN
DeltaTheta = DeltaTheta + 2*pi;
END_IF;

Related

What is the algorithm behind Photoshop's Highlight or shadow alteration?

I want to write an image enhancement algorithm which is similar to photoshop's highlight and shadows alteration feature. Can you help me regarding what does this feature of photoshop do internally to an image?
Simple approach
To begin with, you can already find already some clue in their documentation: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/adjust-shadow-highlight-detail.html
It's quite hard to guess from those documents which algorithm they use exactly. Below I will only try to explain some approaches I would use if I was facing this problem. Don't expect there a clear algorithm, but use my answer as pointers to drive you at least to a path.
As I understood, this algorithm improve the contrast in a local scale, meaning for each pixel it will adjust the value based on the neighborhood.
To do so you have several input parameters:
Neighborhood size (or Kernel)
Highlight Threshold: Everything above is considered as belonging to highlight
Shadow Threshold: Everything below is considered as belonging to shadow
Other ones are mentioned in the documentation, but they are not useful to understand the algorithmic concept.
1. Determine to which category the pixel belong: Highlight / Shadow / none.
For this part you might consider using either the grayscale image or the Value channel from HSV transformation.
I would take a look to the pixel and its neighborhood.
Compute statistics of the local distribution (mean and variance).
I will compare the mean to the thresholds value define previously, then use the variance to distinguish if the pixel is noisy or belonging to a contour, which on those case I'll expect a huge variance.
2. Apply the processing
In case the pixel is belonging to the shadow or highlight class you want to improve its contrast, not the "gray" but the "color" contrast.
Dumb approach:
Will be to weight your color channel according to their intra-variances.
Here is an example: Consider your pixel being: (32, 35, 50)(R,G,B) and belonging to shadow class. I will determine 3 coefficients Rc, Gc, Bc which are defined between 0.5 - 1.5 (arbitrary) which apply to the respective channel.
Since the Blue is dominant I would have a high coefficient for the blue like 1.3 and lower the importance of R and G channel with a coefficient about 0.8.
To compute these coefficients you can think to look at color variance, meaning differences between the color channels themselves and differences between each channels and the pixel mean.
Other (high-level) approaches
Laplacian Pyramids
Using the pyramids to distinguish the details in different scales and the laplacian to improve the contrast.
http://mcclanahoochie.com/blog/portfolio/opencl-image-pyramid-detail-enhancement/
https://www.darktable.org/2017/11/local-laplacian-pyramids/
Those links could be really helpful for you, especially because the sources are available and the concept are well explained.
I would advise you to continue your quest to look deeper in darktable. It's a powerful free/open-source alternative to Lightroom.
I already find some interesting stuff just by looking at their blog.
Sorry for this incomplete answer, I'll probably come back there to improve it.
All comments and suggestions are more than welcome
You can follow the following technique. It is not accurate but imitates well.
lumR = 0.299;
lumG = 0.587;
lumB = 0.114;
// we have to find luminance of the pixel
// here 0.0 <= source.r/source.g/source.b <= 1.0
// and 0.0 <= luminance <= 1.0
luminance = sqrt( lumR*pow(source.r,2.0) + lumG*pow(source.g,2.0) + lumB*pow(source.b,2.0));
// here highlights and and shadows are our desired filter amounts
// highlights/shadows should be >= -1.0 and <= +1.0
// highlights = shadows = 0.0 by default
// you can change 0.05 and 8.0 according to your needs but okay for me
h = highlights * 0.05 * ( pow(8.0, luminance) - 1.0 );
s = shadows * 0.05 * ( pow(8.0, 1.0 - luminance) - 1.0 );
output.r = source.r + h + s;
output.g = source.g + h + s;
output.b = source.b + h + s;

How use raw Gryoscope Data °/s for calculating 3D rotation?

My question may seem trivial, but the more I read about it - the more confused I get... I have started a little project where I want to roughly track the movements of a rotating object. (A basketball to be precise)
I have a 3-axis accelerometer (low-pass-filtered) and a 3-axis gyroscope measuring °/s.
I know about the issues of a gyro, but as the measurements will only be several seconds and the angles tend to be huge - I don't care about drift and gimbal right now.
My Gyro gives me the rotation speed of all 3 axis. As I want to integrate the acceleration twice to get the position at each timestep, I wanted to convert the sensors coordinate-system into an earthbound system.
For the first try, I want to keep things simple, so I decided to go with the big standard rotation matrix.
But as my results are horrible I wonder if this is the right way to do so. If I understood correctly - the matrix is simply 3 matrices multiplied in a certain order. As rotation of a basketball doesn't have any "natural" order, this may not be a good idea. My sensor measures 3 angular velocitys at once. If I throw them into my system "step by step" it will not be correct since my second matrix calculates the rotation around the "new y-axis" , but my sensor actually measured an angular velocity around the "old y-axis". Is that correct so far?
So how can I correctly calculate the 3D rotation?
Do I need to go for quaternoins? but how do I get one from 3 different rotations? And don't I have the same issue here again?
I start with a unity-matrix ((1, 0, 0)(0, 1, 0)(0, 0, 1)) multiplied with the acceleration vector to give me the first movement.
Then I want use the Rotation matrix to find out, where the next acceleration is really heading so I can simply add the accelerations together.
But right now I am just too confused to find a proper way.
Any suggestions?
btw. sorry for my poor english, I am tired and (obviously) not a native speaker ;)
Thanks,
Alex
Short answer
Yes, go for quaternions and use a first order linearization of the rotation to calculate how orientation changes. This reduces to the following pseudocode:
float pose_initial[4]; // quaternion describing original orientation
float g_x, g_y, g_z; // gyro rates
float dt; // time step. The smaller the better.
// quaternion with "pose increment", calculated from the first-order
// linearization of continuous rotation formula
delta_quat = {1, 0.5*dt*g_x, 0.5*dt*g_y, 0.5*dt*g_z};
// final orientation at start time + dt
pose_final = quaternion_hamilton_product(pose_initial, delta_quat);
This solution is used in PixHawk's EKF navigation filter (it is open source, check out formulation here). It is simple, cheap, stable and accurate enough.
Unit matrix (describing a "null" rotation) is equivalent to quaternion [1 0 0 0]. You can get the quaternion describing other poses using a suitable conversion formula (for example, if you have Euler angles you can go for this one).
Notes:
Quaternions following [w, i, j, k] notation.
These equations assume angular speeds in SI units, this is, radians per second.
Long answer
A gyroscope describes the rotational speed of an object as a decomposition in three rotational speeds around the orthogonal local axes XYZ. However, you could equivalently describe the rotational speed as a single rate around a certain axis --either in reference system that is local to the rotated body or in a global one.
The three rotational speeds affect the body simultaneously, continously changing the rotation axis.
Here we have the problem of switching from the continuous-time real world to a simpler discrete-time formulation that can be easily solved using a computer. When discretizing, we are always going to introduce errors. Some approaches will lead to bigger errors, while others will be notably more accurate.
Your approach of concatenating three simultaneous rotations around orthogonal axes work reasonably well with small integration steps (let's say smaller than 1/1000 s, although it depends on the application), so that you are simulating the continuous change of rotation axis. However, this is computationally expensive, and error grows as you make time steps bigger.
As an alternative to first-order linearization, you can calculate pose increments as a small delta of angular speed gradient (also using quaternion representation):
quat_gyro = {0, g_x, g_y, g_z};
q_grad = 0.5 * quaternion_product(pose_initial, quat_gyro);
// Important to normalize result to get unit quaternion!
pose_final = quaternion_normalize(pose_initial + q_grad*dt);
This technique is used in Madgwick rotation filter (here an implementation), and works pretty fine for me.

Any faster method to move things in a circle?

Currently I'm using Math.cos and Math.sin to move objects in a circle in my game, however I suspect it's slow (didn't make proper tests yet though) after reading a bit about it.
Are there any ways to calculate this in a faster way?. Been reading that one alternative could be to have a sort of hash table with stored pre-calculated results, like old people used it in the old times before the computer age.
Any input is appreciated.
Expanding on my comment, if you don't have any angular acceleration (the angular velocity stays constant -- this is a requirement for the object to remain traveling in a circle with constant radius without changing the center-pointing force, e.g. via tension in a string), then you can use the following strategy:
1) Compute B = angular_velocity * time_step_size. This is how much angle change the object needs to go through in a single time step.
2) Compute sinb = sin(B) and cosb = cos(B).
3)
Note that we want to change the angle from A to A+B (the object is going counterclockwise). In this derivation, the center of the circle we're orbiting is given by the origin.
Since the radius of the circle is constant, we know r*sin(A+B) = y_new = r*sin(A)cos(B) + r*cos(A)sin(B) = y_old * cos(B) + x_old*sin(B) and r*cos(A+B) = x_new = r*cos(A)*cos(B) - r*sin(A)sin(B) = x_old*cos(B) - y_old*sin(B).
We've removed the cosine and sine of anything we don't already know, so the Cartesian coordinates can be written as
x_new = x_old*cosb - y_old*sinb
y_new = x_old*sinb + y_old*cosb
No more cos or sin calls except in an initialization step which is called once. Obviously, this won't save you anything if B keeps changing for whatever reason (either angular velocity or time step size changes).
You'll notice this is the same as multiplying the position vector by a fixed rotation matrix. You can translate by the circle center and translate back if you don't want to only consider circles with a center at the origin.
First Edit
As #user5428643 mentions, this method is numerically unstable over time due to drift in the radius. You can probably correct this by periodically renormalizing x and y (x_new = x_old * r_const / sqrt(x_old^2 + y_old^2) and similarly for y every few thousand steps -- if you implement this, save the factor r_const / sqrt(x_old^2 + y_old^2) since it is the same for both x and y). I'll think about it some more and edit this answer if I come up with a better fix.
Second Edit
Some more comments on the numerical drift over time:
I did a couple of tests in C++ and python. In C++ using single precision floats, there is sizable drift even after 1 million time steps when B = 0.1. I used a circle with radius 1. In double precision, I didn't notice any drift visually after 100 million steps, but checking the radius shows that it is contaminated in the lower few digits. Doing the renormalization on every step (which is unnecessary if you're just doing visualization) results in an approximately 4 times slower running time versus the drifty version. However, even this version is about 2-3 times faster than using sin and cos on every iteration. I used full optimization (-O3) in g++. In python (using the math package) I only got a speed up of 2 between the drifty and normalized versions, however the sin and cos version actually slots in between these two -- it's almost exactly halfway between these two in terms of run time. Renormalizing every once in a few thousand steps would still make this faster, but it's not nearly as big a difference as my C++ version would indicate.
I didn't do too much scientific testing to get the timings, just a few tests with 1 million to 1 billion steps in increments of 10.
Sorry, not enough rep to comment.
The answers by #neocpp and #oliveryas01 would both be perfectly correct without roundoff error.
The answer by #oliveryas01, just using sine and cosine directly, and precalculating and storing many values if necessary, will work fine.
However, #neocpp's answer, repeatedly rotating by small angles using a rotation matrix, is numerically unstable; over time, the roundoff error in the radius will tend to grow exponentially, so if you run your programme for a long time the objects will slowly move off the circle, spiralling either inwards or outwards.
You can see this mathematically with a little numerical analysis: at each stage, the squared radius is approximately multiplied by a number which is approximately constant and approximately equal to 1, but almost certainly not exactly equal to 1 due to inexactness of floating point representations.
If course, if you're using double precision numbers and only trying to achieve a simple visual effect, this error may not be large enough to matter to you.
I would stick with sine and cosine if I were you. They're the most efficient way to do what you're trying to do. If you really want maximum performance then you should generate an array of x and y values from the sine and cosine values, then plug that array's values into the circle's position. This way, you aren't running sine and cosine repeatedly, instead only for one cycle.
Another possibility completely avoiding the trig functions would be use a polar-coordinate model, where you set the distance and angle. For example, you could set the x coordinate to be the distance, and the rotation to be the angle, as in...
var gameBoardPin:Sprite = new Sprite();
var gameEntity:Sprite = new YourGameEntityHere();
gameBoardPin.addChild( gameEntity );
...and in your loop...
// move gameEntity relative to the center of gameBoardPin
gameEntity.x = circleRadius;
// rotate gameBoardPin from its center causes gameEntity to rotate at the circleRadius
gameBoardPin.rotation = desiredAngleForMovingObject
gameBoardPin's x,y coordinates would be set to the center of rotation for gameEntity. So, if you wanted the gameEntity to rotate with a 100 pixel tether around the center of the stage, you might...
gameBoardPin.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
gameBoardPin.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
gameEntity.x = 100;
...and then in the loop you might...
desiredAngleForMovingObject += 2;
gameBoardPin.rotation = desiredAngleForMovingObject
With this method you're using degrees instead of radians.

Time Corrected Verlet Integration and too big timesteps

i use a Time Corrected Verlet Integration found here: http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/math-and-physics/a-simple-time-corrected-verlet-integration-method-r2200
But when my ball is on a wall (horizontal wall, ball upon it and the acceleration is directed down) for a some time, my game cannot recognize the collision in the right way and the ball goes down.
If I put a fixed cap to deltatime like 1/60 it seems to work.
I think the problem are too big timesteps.
But the time corrected verlet integration is done to avoid too big timesteps, it is right?
If yes, why I need the time cap?
The equation given in the article is broken, erroneous. When I derive it, I get this:
x = x + (x – xl)*h/hl + a*h*(h + hl)/2
instead of his, which is this:
x = x + (x – xl)*h/hl + a*h^2
and here's an example using his charts:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/TL6HT.png
From what I understand, the time-corrected verlet integration only helps when you have a fluctuating framerate, but it won't help if your base framerate is too low.

Formula for controlling the movement of a tank-like vehicle?

Anyone know the formula used to control the movement of a simple tank-like vehicle?
To 'steer' it, you need to alter the force applied the left and right "wheels". Eg. 1 unit of force on both wheels makes it go forward. -1 units of force on both wheels makes it go backwards. Apply more force to one wheel than the other and it turns.
How would you calculate the amount of force needed on both wheels to turn the tank a certain number of degrees either way?
Or am I thinking about this in the wrong way?
edit:
As William Keller mentioned I missed out the speed of the tank. Assume 1 unit of force on both wheels moves the tank forward at 1 unit per second.
For anyone who's interested, I just found this thread on gamedev.net:
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:wSn5t58ACJwJ:www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp%3Ftopic_id%3D407491+tank+track+radius+velocity&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=za&client=firefox-a
Another thread:
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=220317
It turns out the key to finding the formula was just knowing the correct terminology ("skid steer") :P
For a skid steered vehicle that is required to turn in radius 'r' at a given speed 'Si' of the Inner Wheel/Track, the Outer track must be driven at speed 'So' :
So = Si * ((r+d)/r)
Details:
In Skid Steering, a turn is performed by the outer wheels/track traveling further distance than the inner wheels/track.
Furthermore, the extra distance traveled is completed in the same time as the inner track, meaning that the outer wheels/track must run faster.
Circle circumference circumscribed by "Inner" track:
c1 = 2*PI*r
'r' is radius of circle origin to track/wheel
Circle circumference circumscribed by "Outer" track:
c2 = 2*PI*(r+d)
'r' is radius of circle origin to inner track/wheel
'd' is the distance between the Inner and Outer wheels/track.
Furthermore, c2 = X * c1, which says that c2 is proportionally bigger than c1
X = c2 / c1
X = 2*PI*(r+d) / 2*PI*r
X = (r+d)/r
Therefore for a skid steered vehicle that is required to turn in radius 'r' at a given speed 's' of the Inner Wheel/Track, the Outer track must be driven at :
So = Si * ((r+d)/r)
Where:
'So' = Speed of outer track
'Si' = Speed of inner track
'r' = turn radius from inner track
'd' = distance between vehicle tracks.
********* <---------------- Outer Track
**** | ****
** |<--------**----------- 'd' Distance between tracks
* *******<-------*---------- Inner Track
* *** ^ *** *
* * |<-----*------*-------- 'r' Radius of Turn
* * | * *
* * O * *
* * * *
* * * *
* *** *** *
* ******* *
** **
**** ****
*********
You're thinking about it the wrong way. The thing is, differing amounts of force on the tracks will not turn the tank a certain number of degrees. Rather, differing force will alter the RATE of turn.
The relationship between the force and the turn rate will vary depending on the mechanics of the tank. The wider the tank the slower it turns. The faster the tank the faster it turns.
P.S. Some more thoughts on this: I don't think a physics-based answer is possible without basing it off a real-world tank. Several of the answers address the physics of the turn but there is the implicit assumption in all of them that the system has infinite power. Can the tank really operate at 1, -1? And can it reach that velocity instantly--acceleration applies to turns, also.
Finally, treads have length as well as width. That means you are going to get some sideways slippage of the treads in any turning situation, the faster the turn the more such slippage will be required. That is going to burn up energy in a sharp turn, even if the engine has the power to do a 1, -1 turn it wouldn't turn as fast as that would indicate because of friction losses.
Change in angle (in radians/sec) = (l-r)/(radius between treads)
Velocity = l+r
For the dtheta, imagine you had a wooden pole between your two hands, and you want to calculate how much it rotates depending on how hard and which way your hands are pressing - you want to figure out:
how much surface distance on the pole you cover per sec -> how many rotations/sec that is -> how many radians/sec (i.e. mult by 2pi)
Well, keep in mind that you're also talking about duration here. You need to find out the forces taking in to account the speed at which the tank turns at (1, -1).
I.E., if the tank takes one second to spin 360˚ at (1, -1), and you want to spin 180˚ in one second, (.5, -.5) would do the trick. If you wanted to spin the same amount in half a second, then (1, -1) would work.
This is all further complicated if you use abs(lrate) != abs(rrate), in which case you'll probably need to break out a pencil!
Here's how I would attack the tank problem.
The center of the tank will probably be moving by the average speed of the right and left tracks. At the same time, the tank will be rotating clockwise around it's center by ([left track speed] * -[right track speed]) / [width].
This should give you speed and a direction vector.
Disclaimer: I have not tested this...
It has been a while since I did any physics but I would have thought that the apposing forces of the two tracks moving in opposite directions results in a torque about the center of mass of the tank.
It is this torque that results in the angular momentum of the tank which is just another way of saying the tank starts to rotation.
I'd say you're thinking about it in the wrong way.
Increasing the difference in speed between the two treads doesn't cause degrees of turn - they, combined with time (distance at different speed) cause degrees of turn.
The more of a difference in tread speed, the less time needed to achieve X degrees of turn.
So, in order to come up with a formula, you'll have to make a few assumptions. Either turn at a fixed rate, and use time as your variable for turning X degrees, or set a fixed amount of time to complete a turn, and use the track speed difference as your variable.
It's not a matter of force - it depends on the difference in velocity between the 2 sides, and how long that difference holds (also the tank's width, but that's just a constant parameter).
Basically, you should calculate it along these lines:
The velocity ratio between the 2 sides is the same as the radius ratio.
The tank's width is the actual difference between the 2 rasiuses (sp?).
Using those 2 numbers, find the actual values for the radius.
Multiply the velocity of one of the sides by the time it was moving to get the distance it traveled.
Calculate what part of a full circle it traveled by dividing that into that circle's perimeter.
You could look at it by saying : each track describes a circle.
In the case where one track is turning (lets say the left) and the other isn't, then the facing will be dependant on how long and how far the left tracks turn for.
This distance will be the speed of the tracks x time.
Now draw a triangle with this distance, and the wheelbase pencilled in, plus some sin and cos equations & approximations, and you might get an approximate equation like :
facing change = distance travelled by tracks / wheelbase
Then you could incorporate some accelleration to be more realistic: More physics...
The speed isn't constant - it accellerates (and decellerates).
ie over a period of time the speed increases from 0, to 0.1 ... 0.2 ... 0.3 up to a limit.
Of course, as the speed changes, the rate of change of the facing changes too - a bit more realistic than the speed (and thus rate of change of the facing) being entirely constant.
In other words, instead of controlling the speed, the player controls the change in speed. This would make the speed go from 0 ... 0.02 ... 0.06 ... 0.1 etc. as the player pushes the controller. Similarly for decelleration, but a bit more rapidly probably.
hope this helps.
I think everyone should also take note of the fact that tanks can turn on a Zero-radius circle: by applying the same speed on each track but on opposite directions, tanks can turn on a dime.

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