Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Spiral Turns

Can you derive the expression for turning radius when a the wheels of a two wheeled robot are operating at different speeds?

The resulting formula is a rational fraction of the form:
R = d * V1 / (V2 - V1)
where R is the radius of the turn d is the distance between the wheels, and V1 and V2 are the speeds of the wheels, with V1 < V2.

Is this formula correct?

Programming could use TI-BASIC input statements to enter speeds for each wheel.

Challenge - the Fibonacci spiral, constructing a spiral, other spirals