My slow skid steer rover does auto missions great for the most part, but it is extremely slow to complete any pivot turns in auto mode. When I place waypoints close together and less than the WP_PIVOT_ANGLE = 60 (default), the rover smoothly navigates the course. OTOH if I add say a 90* turn in, it stops for a pivot turn, starts the pivot turn with a reasonable rotation rate, but then before reaching the target heading it slows down a lot, sometimes never completing the turn. While “stopped”, I can hear the motors humming, and depending on terrain I sometimes see the tracks creep around and the heading very slowly ticking toward the correct direction. Sometimes it actually makes it 10-30sec later (usually smoother surfaces), but sometimes it just gets stuck for a long time and I have to toggle auto mode off and back on to continue. After toggling automode, it usually drives off forward to the next waypoint.
I could work around this by adding more waypoints to round corners, or increasing the pivot angle so it never pivots while in auto, but that would not be optimal. I am guessing there is some parameter that can fix the creeping auto pivot turns without introducing other issues to auto mode?
I mention introducing other issues because otherwise I like it. It tracks velocity pretty well, keeping a fairly straight line between waypoints, and it’s able to drive itself through a relatively tight area safely. Previously I was fine just toggling auto off/on to get past this, but today I realized it can cause damage. I think I burned one of the brushed motors by attempting to wait it out too long before intervening and restarting auto. After resuming, the outboard motor lost half of it’s RPM permanently (burned brushes or windings I presume). It’s a small rover so a quick and cheap fix fortunately.