Binoculars?

[Gary Dillard]

Have any coaches ever brought binoculars on stage curing competition, and were they useful? I don't see any rule against it. I'd like to verify that we have fully grabbed the bar prior to hoisting, and I thought a closer look might help. Not sure if the time involved in finding what I'm looking for, plus the hassle of having them banging around, is worth it. What about a small telescope on a tripod aimed at the bar from the driver station?

[EricH]

Competitive advantage, Gary. <T26> forbids them.

[Gary Dillard]

Thanks Eric - I hunted and searched and couldn't find that rule.

In light of that rule, am I required to wear a hat so the glare from my head doesn't give us a competitive advantage? ;)

[Jon Stratis]

I can see it now... the drive team walks up, all dressed as pirates. The coach has the big, pointy hat on, a fake parrot on his shoulder, and an eye patch (throw in a peg leg and a hook for a hand if you can). The match starts... and with 20 seconds left they start to line up to lift. The coach pulls a telescope out of his pocket, extends it, and starts giving instructions...

But in all seriousness... I would be aware of the following rules and definitions before thinking too hard about this:

(Found in section 8.2)
OPERATOR CONSOLE – the DRIVER STATION devices, and any associated equipment, control interfaces, display systems, structure, decorations, etc. used by the DRIVERS to operate the ROBOT.

<G51> DRIVERS Operating ROBOTS - During a MATCH, the OPERATOR CONSOLE shall be operated solely by the DRIVERS. Violation: Disablement and RED CARD.

The idea of a telescope on a tripod would, i think, not be available to the coach - it would most likely be considered part of the driver station and should only be used by one of the two drivers.

Bringing binoculars or something similar that would not be attached or ever even touch the OPERATOR CONSOLE, however, would probably not be affected by these rules... and if there is a rule against it, i haven't been able to find it. As i've never seen this done in a match before, i would recommend posting it to the Q&A for the GDC to decide. Although if you want to get *real* technical about it, glasses and contacts serve as vision enhancement devices that are brought onto the field all the time.

*Edit - D'oh, Thanks for pointing that out Eric... it's probably been 6 weeks since i've read that section of the manual, and didn't even think to look in it here.

[Alan Anderson]

You can't have binoculars, but you can have a camera on the robot pointed at the spot where the hook needs to grab the bar. There's no rule that says the coach can't look at the video image on the Dashboard.

[Gary Dillard]

Yeah, we were thinking about that; right now the camera is on the other side and we couldn't get a good view but I wouldn't be surprised if it moves by the end of the compeition.

[cmh0114]

I'd say your best bet is to go with the camera. Make sure you place it at such an angle that its view is completely different from what you can see from your post. There's not much use having a camera that sees only what you're seeing, only closer. It's much more useful to have it at a completely different angle so that you can get two separate views and make sure that it's secure before elevating.

[BrendanB]

Have you thought of a neon hook so it is easier to see if it is on the bar? Or a sensor on the hook that can sense when the bar is contacting multiple parts of the hooks?

Could be helpful!?! Good luck!:)

[EricH]

40 in 2007... According to the Behind the Design book for that year, their arm lit up with LEDs or something similar in red and white when a tube was in grabbing range. How hard could it be to hook up something that would do the same thing, but for the bar?

[BrendanB]

40 in 2007... According to the Behind the Design book for that year, their arm lit up with LEDs or something similar in red and white when a tube was in grabbing range. How hard could it be to hook up something that would do the same thing, but for the bar?

I was going to quote that, but didn't think anyone would remember it and it is kinda hard to see in the vidoes. :p

Shouldn't be too hard lights are very effective to signal to drivers, and look really cool!;)

Check out some of these pictures and you can sort of see the lights on the arm. The light washed the out in the pictures but were very distinct on the field. http://checkmate40.com/gallery/BAE%20Systems%202007/slides/IMG_6642.html

[Gary Dillard]

Yeah, we were thinking about that; right now the camera is on the other side and we couldn't get a good view but I wouldn't be surprised if it moves by the end of the competition.

We did move the camera and it worked quite well. Turned out we didn't need it to see if we grabbed the tower but to make sure the bumper was in contact with the tower prior to deploying (since we were grabbing prior to the finale) - the tower blocked our view so binoculars wouldn't have helped anyway.

[sanddrag]

If you need binoculars to determine if your robot is ready to score, I suggest you change your design. This is a fast game, and it will only get faster. No time to be certain of things; the mechanism needs to take care of that for the operator.