FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

All,

I have decided to make my award-winning FALCON Object Recognition System open-source in the spirit of gracious professionalism, and also in the hopes that it will find use among FIRST teams and grow even better than it already is. I have relased it under the terms of the GPL.

I would appreciate feedback regarding the website design, Wiki structure, and user manual user-friendliness :) .

If you use the system and like it, please consider donating an old Victor 883 to me so that I can continue working on robotics-related stuff. :D

The project webpage is viewable here: http://www.falconir.com

Enjoy!

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Great move :)

By doing this you let the project help more teams than that small segment that can afford a $250 camera system. Although it may not seem like much compared to a $6,000 kit cost, to some teams its a large price.

Again, good job.
-mike

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Whoa, cool! Thanks!

2 things:

-How do I know what upgrade to choose when ordering the Spartan board? I didn't see a model number of any sort...

-The homepage is very full of graphics. It takes forever to load on a fast connection. Tone it down a bit?

JBot

PS Thanks for making it open-source. This is a great contribution and I plan on helping as much as I can.

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

You're welcome! :)

Did you follow the link in the Wiki? If you click on that link, and then click "Add to Cart", you will get the screen that I attached. Select the option that I highlighted in red, and you should be set!

Sure thing; I am adding a forum right now and will convert all my BMPs to JPEGs during the site upgrades. (I forgot to do that :o )

I look forward to seeing your contributions! :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

WOW! The world is very flat...
(I am reading The World is Flat and I just finished the part about the #4 flattner of the world.)
___________

Back on topic, I love this program. I read through the manual and you did a fine job with this and I think many teams will use this and improve upon this before next year to make it perfect..

Pavan.

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I'd love to see what Dave Lavery and the GDC could do with autonomous mode if they had one of these at their disposal! :D Could we have a 30-second autonomous mode with multiple tasks? (Wishful thinking, I know...)

The forums are now up and I have tried to reduce the page load time; please let me know if it still takes too long to load.

I'll try to put a cleaned-up copy of the sample drivers out within a couple of weeks.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement!

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Aah...I didn't see that yesterday...are you playing tricks with my mind? ;)

Thanks again for this amazing contribution. I'm sending the info to my mentor so maybe (I doubt it, but just maybe) I'll have this ready for Atlanta. (*cough*yeah, right*cough*:D )

Now, on a 1024x768 desktop, I have to scroll horizontally on the RequiredHardware wiki page--the screenshot needs to be scaled down a bit.

Once I get the hardware, I'll definitely help with the content on this site at the very least; I can add screenshots, etc..

Great stuff!

JBot

EDIT: Are you planning on making the wiki open? I might contribute later on if it is.

EDIT again: does the board come with a ribbon cable, or do I need to scrounge something up?

EDIT yet again: and does the JTAG cable come with the board or do I need to order that separately?

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

One can only hope...this was one of the reasons I released this system shortly after we were kicked from the running for Nats. I was hoping there might be another team crazy enough to try it for Nats... :D

Should be fixed now.

Thank you! :)

Yes, it is open. Email or PM me for the edit password (mainly used to keep spammers off of the Wiki)

I put some assembly instructions here:
http://www.falconir.com/images/cable_construction.jpg

There was a link in the Wiki under the "Required Hardware" section. You will need to scrounge up the parts to make it with, though.

A JTAG cable comes with the development board.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. If you want the IFI drivers in their current, "disheveled" state, just let me know. In fact, if you wouldn't mind cleaning them up... ;)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I just PM'd you.

Just out of curiosity, did you have any gain problems with the camera sensor (that seems to be the problem with our CMUcam more than anything)? And how well did it track for you? Was it distracted, as the CMUcam was so often, by vapor lights in the shop? Did you pull any Innovation in Control awards at competition?

I have some other things that I need to do during code windows this week, but after West Michigan (and maybe during, even) I will start playing with this (unless something else code-wise breaks).

One other thing: did you find a good way of mounting this? And did you use the FIRST pan-tilt mechanism with it?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions...:p

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Sunglasses solved that!

Very well; it never lost a lock, either on the practice field or on the competition field.

Nope. It even ignored the big projector at the regionals!

Yup, one at St. Louis. At Midwest, the arm change fouled up the autonomous code too badly for it to work.

We zip-tied the cameras to a long piece of angle iron with holes drilled for the lenses to stick out. When this was mouted at the top of the robot, it looked like a praying mantis. This prompted the name "Buggy" for the cameras. :p

That's OK! :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I thought you were joking, but a quick search here revealed that you weren't.:)

Alright, just waiting on my mentor to order. What was the shipping time for you on the board?

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

We used the express Saturday delivery option, as I found out the development board I was going to use had a fried pin on it. Needless to say, the replacement came the next day! :D (It also came with a HEFTY shipping charge, somewhere around $50 :eek: )

Try UPS Ground, it should get to you in a few days.

The sunglasses were actually doubled up (two lenses on each camera) because the green lights were so insanely bright. Basically, you want them to appear medium green, not white.

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I can't seem to navigate on the FALCON page anymore. What happened? None of the buttons work...

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

That's wierd, it works for me. :confused:

Do you have JavaScript disabled?

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Now it works...it just didn't work at school. Weird...

Why use JavaScript? I mean, for simplicity's sake... (then again, I hate JavaScript all around)

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

For the rollover effects. If there is a non-javascript way to do that, I would be interested in knowing about it. :)

Did your mentor approve the use of this system yet? I am eager to have another team use it and give me some feedback. :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I don't know of a non-JavaScript way of doing that, except I think I read something about DIV tags and CSS being able to do that (it seems like you should be able to set the :hover background image and have it work that way). This approach might not work in Internet Explorer, or at all for that matter.

My mentor approved this system this past weekend. He just needed the info to order it. He ordered the board; now we're just waiting on shipping. It might be in today; I don't know yet (take a peek at this post time. 3:48AM local...).

What exactly do I need to download from Xilinx? I found the WebPack, but it is over a gig and my connection isn't *that* fast...I can get it if I need it, but I have a hard time believing that I need to download a gig of tools to make this work.

Eagerly looking forward to playing with this system,
JBot

EDIT: I figured it out, and I updated the wiki article.

EDIT2: Your teaser pic link is broken. IMHO you should tear it down, but that's up to you.

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Thank you!

It's gone now. :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

The other thing I'm seeing that is concerning me is the I/O board in the picture--the board in between the female headers on the Spartan and the camera sensor. Where did it come from?

Just trying to fill in some holes.

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

That little adapter is my "cable". :) I had no need for the length of cable for my desktop prototyping board, so I wired up that adapter instead. I don't have a schematic for it, but it shoudn't be too hard to figure it out from the cable construction diagram.

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

Hey, just wondering how things are going JBot. :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I have the Spartan board, but I neglected to get a USB JTAG cable (hence the bit of info I put in your wiki regarding the parallel JTAG cable...) and I don't have a parallel port. The new cable is ordered, but I'm still waiting. I haven't had a chance to look at any of the code, so I probably won't get to it before Atlanta. Not to mention I won't even have my laptop until Friday because my sister accidentally took my computer bag with her on vacation...and while I could get the 1.3gb file again and install it here, I don't think I'll bother.

I still might try it, but it will be highly experimental if I get it going...:eek:

I don't know what I'm going to do for a ribbon cable. It would appear that I need a ribbon cable with a male end and a female end--highly rare. I have no idea how I would pull that together either. Do I have a problem with just plugging the sensor directly into the header on the board? I saw that I need to cut a pin; will this make the sensor inoperable with a CMUcam board?

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

That's OK; have fun with it in the off-season. :) I am working on getting a demonstration video together; maybe I'll have it in the next few weeks on FirstTube.

You will need to custom assemble that cable according to the instructions on the Wiki. You CANNOT plug the sensor directly into the FPGA board; the power pins (Vcc and Gnd) need to be re-routed through the use of the ribbon cable (or an adapter board).

I have no idea if cutting that pin will make the CMUCam inoperable; it is a redundant +5V power pin that tends to make the FPGA overheat if left connected. You could find and cut the appropriate wire in the ribbon cable instead, I suppose.

I just realized yesterday that I left a critical piece of information off of the wiki! :o

You will need to obtain two 2.2K resistors and solder them between the I2C communications pins and Vcc, otherwise the FPGA cannot configure the module and you will get very interesting pictures using the frame dump option! :)

I will be putting pictures and instructions on the Wiki in the next few days, although it may not be done until after Easter.

Hope this helps, and thanks for being a "ginuea pig", so to speak! :D

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I have updated the Wiki with the required information. Thank you for your patience!

I am in the process of getting a demonstration video together; hopefully that will generate more interest in this system. :)

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

I am going to heat-gun an old system board to swipe a male header off it; I will probably do this when it gets warm outside (it's 40* here in MI) because heat-gunning all that plastic, lead, and fire retardant will most likely make me a bit tipsy if done indoors. I might end up getting a new soldering iron, too--my dad's 12 year old dinosaur probably won't do it.

Thanks for the mental stimulation. Much better than fighting with the CMUcam--now I'll be fighting with the FALCON!

I will post back when I know/do more.

JBot

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

FALCON Version 1.002 is now available!

Get it at http://www.falconir.com/downloads.php.

Features include:
* Tracking at 9 frames per second, instead of 6
* Protocol change to include the current tracking mode in the tracking string
* Numerous bugfixes and hardening.

Have fun!

Re: FALCON Open-Source Object Recognition System Now Available!
 

And, as promised so long ago, here is a short video of the original 1.001 FALCON system on my Vex 'bot, Loki: http://www.falconir.com/media/falcon...t_vex_demo.mpg

Here is a better picture of the machine, sans light-tracking shades:
http://www.falconir.com/media/falcon...x_demo_bot.jpg

I will be putting together a much higher quality longer demo video in the next couple of months, maybe even on an FRC robot! :)