Specific questions pertaining to the Kinect
 

So my team has done some research on using the kinect on-board the robot and it seems like everyone has been pointing to using some sort of computer on-board the robot as a sort of "middleman" between the kinect and cRio.

My questions are:
What is the legality of using a computer on the robot as such in past years?
What restrictions have there been using a computer as such in past years?
What is a good, cheap computer to use for this? Or what should I look for to do this?

Re: Specific questions pertaining to the Kinect
 

I'm not sure about using a computer on the robot in the past years but obviously it was allowed in 2012 :)

The major restrictions are that it can't drive anything. It isn't allowed to directly control motors or pneumatics or anything that moves. 3309 is writing a server program to run on cRIO so that all the cRIO does is drive the motors. We were getting fed up with how long it takes to build, deploy, and reboot the robot, so we're going to be using ROS in 2013.
Regarding power, I believe that batteries integrated into the system are allowed this year, so you don't have to remove a CMOS battery for example.

I believe this is the system that we used in 2012 (you'll have to run it through Google Translate because for some reason it ended up in German) http://www.zotac.com/index.php?page=...100166&lang=en
You can use any computer really, I saw several teams with PandaBoards or BeagleBoards or BeagleBones. You might be able to use a Raspberry Pi even, but I don't know how well it could cope with intensive vision processing if you're planning anything like that. It should be able to handle analyzing single frames like a lot of teams did, but I doubt it could keep up with 30fps. Again, I've never used an RPi, so don't take my word for it.

Re: Specific questions pertaining to the Kinect
 

Helps to be a little more specific than that. Which system are we talking about and what can those batteries power?

We also don't know if integrated batteries will be allowed next year (2013). Consider that Subject to Change if you plan to use them that way.

Now, what the rule last year actually said:
I also remember that someone managed to put a computer on their robot in 2010, under much more restrictive rules.