Two Cameras on robot?
 

Someone brought this up at team meeting, was wondering if it was allowed (or even possible) we want to use one kinect and another generic kitbot camera from years past (using labview, btw). Any reasons why we wouldnt want to do this, or why we would? All opinions are helpfull...

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

two cameras would be heavy

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

No, not really.

As for usefulness, yes, but probably not. You might end up having some, er, conflicts, if you try to send data from both to the dashboard or cRio at the same time. To remedy this, you might end up having to write your own networking code to fix this... but I'm not entirely sure about that if it will even work.

Now, assuming if it did work, and if you could get both images to the camera, and the network bandwidth allowed it, you could work wonders with the image processing (i.e. have the easiest time ever located the hoops distance with two cameras).

Thats a big if.

Bottom line: I'd say the benefits are great, but the difficulty is something that would make superman cringe.

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

We're investigating doing this with our robot, and our programmer has found (theoretically, since we currently only have one camera) that we can plug one in to the cRIO for image processing and another into the router to display on the driver station. This is actually what we want, so we haven't investigated whether we can have two run image processing or not.

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

Yes, the difficulty would make superman cringe. Have you read the "Using the Kinect on the robot" thread? Now add a normal robot camera in the mix and make sure it still works with bandwidth, etc. I'm not sure if it would work. Or if anyone has the time or experience.

What practical purpose are you thinking for this?

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

my team considered this for a little bit but we abandoned the idea when we figured out that the Kinect requires considerable processing power to begin with, and if it were on the robot it would need its own separate processor to work at all. The practicality was also questioned, though I am unsure what the proposed use of the Kinect on the robot was.

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

The practical function would be to have one camera focus down where we pick up balls and the next towards the hoops for tracking' sake

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

My team is considering exactly the same thing. While it would be very difficult to put the Kinect on the robot, it is legal and (as far as I know) easy to put two kit IP cameras on.

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

Superman must be a wimp.

Last season I tested with three cameras, and the steps are to configure the cameras with unique IPs in the range of 11-20. Then open the source to the dashboard, duplicate the loop and display. It turns out that three streaming 640x480 full speed streams will bog down an old laptop, but the rest of the system was fine.

Greg Mckaskle

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

Last year we had two cameras on our robot: one on the chassis right above a large LED array to track the retroreflective tape and to see if a tube was in front of us when we were trying to hang, and one right behind our claw so we could see if we were aligned in autonomous and in teleop. We used the data from both of these cameras to watch matches from the robot's view after they were finished. When we were using the Classmate in 2010, we sometimes had issues with the video files making the computer slow down or crash, but when we switched to a more powerful laptop laptop, we were able to get through last year with no errors due to video files. Our software was only actively analyzing one camera for automonous hanging in teleop and the other was displayed on the driver station.

TL;DR: It's definitely possible to put two cameras on the robot. We've found it extremely helpful both when picking objects off of the floor and when manipulating the game pieces. We haven't tried putting a Kinect on the robot in sync with a regular camera, but we found that using two normal cameras is pretty straightforward.

Chomantha
(Cho and Samy)
Co-CEOs 1073

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

I'm no expert on the control system, but I know teams have used multiple cameras before. Even with the IFI control system. Definitely possible.

Re: Two Cameras on robot?
 

Last time i check, there wasnt really a rule on how many cameras you could use. its just all communication has to go through the dlink. But I dont know if there is a rule against using a non wireless router connected to the dlink. that way you could use maybe like 6 cameras?