Kinect in auton allowed
 

https://frc-qa.usfirst.org/Question/...t-to-the-robot

FIRST says its ok to use. Who wants to do it?

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I see no benefit, or very little. Kinect is cool but not particularly effective.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

We programmed the Kinect for auton in our off-season last year. It was just for fun, and it was easy, but not at all intuitive to drive. To turn, you pushed out your hips, and to turn sharply, you did the robot arm sway while pushing a hip to the side you want to turn in, to go forward, double arm sway, to raise/lower the bridge, you lifted your left or right knee.

The students could control it just fine, but lowering the bridge required lifting your knee above your gut, so when one of our mentors tried it, he almost fell over trying to raise the bridge-arm :P

That being said, however, it can be useful for autonomous timing. Say you and another team both shoot at the same goal during auton. You can avoid any possible shot conflicts by writing a simple hand-raise-to-shoot kinect program.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I see what the q&a answer is, but it makes no sense. If some one is controlling the robot via Kinect, then it isn't really autonomous, is it? It would be under operator control!

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

It is called autonomous mode, but if you read the auton rules it states that you can't be physically in contact with a controlling device and have to be behind the white line in the station. As far as I know, no rule actually says something along the lines of "can not be controlled through any means by a drive team member"

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

There's still zero incentive to use a Kinect this year. The only reason a Kinect would be "better" than a normal autonomous mode would be if you had to react to some unforeseen event on the field, such as an opponent trying to hit you. Since once again, the autonomous modes are segregated, there should be no scenario that wouldn't be better and more repeatedly executed in a completely autonomous fashion.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I think the Kinect is a very good idea. It is a much better sensor compared to the Axis camera and can be used to offload vision targeting to a computer on the robot vs. using bandwidth to the driver station.

It is certainly not a waste of time to learn how to use it, especially since it has a nice sensor for distance.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

This thread is discussing using the Kinect to control your robot in autonomous mode. I completely agree that it can be a more useful sensor than an Axis camera in the right hands.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Not to "lawyer" up here, but autonomous as defined in the game manual says "Robots operate without direct driver control". With Kinect the robot would be under direct driver control. It is no less direct than when a driver manipulates the robot with joysticks. In either case there is no physical contact, but driver actions cause robot reactions.

Having said all of this, control via Kinect is cool whenever it occurs.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

If you are talking about a hybrid autonomous mode, I believe you may be mistaken.

There is no hybrid autonomous.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Then why did the GDC say it was legal to use the Kinect on the Operator Console to control the robot in Autonomous?

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Thanks. I missed the link and only read the rules. Derp. :o

My experience with Kinect would think this is not a great input device for behind the line due to the ease of other people getting into the frame of reference. The IR remote might be useful though.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Phew, good news. We were worried we wouldn't be able to use it again :cool:

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Does a Kinect on the Driver Station have to be pointed at the drivers? I'm currently looking for a rule that prohibits directing it at the field and using it as a sensor for the robot that isn't on the robot. Somehow I have a feeling the GDC wouldn't approve of this...

Who knows? Maybe it could be useful. Pathfinding, maybe?

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

the Kinect only senses out to about 12 ft so it wouldn't be able to see the whole field at once. Neat idea though!

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

Were probably gonna use it for fun, but maybe for autonomous sequencing. Literally just like a button.

Raise/lower hand to proceed to the next item in your auton for spacing out when your alliance shoots.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

True autonomous is better than a Kinect-driven "Hybrid" mode, but it is definitely not something to always dismiss, because it can (read: has a small-ish chance of us considering it to) be useful.

Take our current plan for using it, for instance:

The SmartDashboard accesses the Kinect. It takes a photo of them, and then uses the Kinect bone coordinate data to turn said photo into a paper doll of the person using the Kinect.

Then, it keeps updating the drawn parts of the paper doll to match the driver. The SmartDashboard then draws a sword in the driver's paper doll's hand, and starts shooting bombs at the driver's paper doll. The driver must chop the bombs, or he/she will be hit and blow up. The goal will be to last through all of auton.

This works well, as now we can do something while we wait for field issues to be resolved :)

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

:D

I see no advantage to Kinect use over a good autonomous.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

So a game within a game?

I like it. :D

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

That's the idea :)

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

At least in this case, there's the high entertainment value. :)

-Karlis

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I thought the driver station and/or control system was designed so that no joystick inputs were sent during autonomous mode. Has it changed since my day?

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I think they do allow data to pass from the driver station to the robot. One example is using the driver station to do vision processing off-board.

Re: Kinect in auton allowed
 

I don't think joystick data is sent, but as the Kinect handled uniquely, it is still sent over.