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Asked

Touch Path Overshoot On Sphero Turns

I’m playing with a Sphero (Bluetooth to a Windows laptop) in ARC and trying to have it follow simple shapes using the Touch Path skill. The Sphero Movement Panel connects fine and I can drive it around smoothly. I used the Movement Panel’s aim/calibration so that pressing Forward makes Sphero roll straight away from me. Battery is topped up and the robot is about 1 meter from the PC.

In Touch Path, I set Movement Speed to 30 and Turning Speed to 70. When I draw a square, the first straight segment is okay, but each 90 turn is a wide ARC and it overshoots, then the following straights drift to the right. I tried lower movement (20) and higher turning (90), and also flipped it (movement 50, turning 60). I also tried on a hard floor and on a yoga mat in case traction was the issue. manual driving via the Movement Panel can make crisp direction changes if I briefly stop and then re-aim with small heading adjustments, but Touch Path’s automatic sequence doesn’t seem to pause enough between segments.

A couple of questions about how these two skills interact: does Touch Path send generic Left/Right commands that the Sphero Movement Panel translates into a rolling arc, or does it support an in-place heading change for Sphero (speed 0, new heading, then roll)? If it’s purely time-based forward/turns, is the recommended approach to insert a Movement Script between Touch Path and Sphero so Left/Right become "stop, set heading delta, short delay, then forward" for tighter corners? If so, is there a sample of intercepting Touch Path turn commands and converting them into Sphero-friendly heading changes without continuous rolling?

What’s the best-practice configuration (or scripting pattern) to get crisp 90 corners with Touch Path on a Sphero without the wide arcs and drift?



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