Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

188 used the camera to feedback to a set of crosshair LEDs mounted on the turret operator's controls.

Even these LEDs were seldom used; they were only required when the view of our turret was completely obstructed.

We had a camera tracking PID loop available, but it never performed anywhere near the same level as our operator manually controlling the turret and hood. Auto-tracking was triggered by a button on the controls what was never touched at any of our competitions.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

We used our camera in Florida for tele-op...
not in Atlanta though..played defense:rolleyes:

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

We used the camera with varying results for tracking robots in Atlanta in autonomous, but refrained from having the robot actually score (we'd score as soon as teleop started). The lighting and other factors in the Dome really brought the tracking accuracy down, although there were a few matches where our robot was right on the tail of an opposing trailer until the end of autonomous.

Everything on our robot was programmed in C++.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

Team Titanium 1986 (Archimedes - long range catapult shooter) had autonomous aim-and-shoot which aimed the turret and measured shot distance. I cannot claim we made any long range autonomous shots, but the bot took a few tries at it. Our code was having trouble recognizing that it was locked onto a target, probably the changed lighting conditions from our last regional.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

Me too. 904 programmed in C++.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

Team 40 used the camera for both auto and during matches. We feel the camera could track faster then the drivers could line up. It also allowed us to fire while we were approaching or chasing a target. We took a image capture and saved it to the cRio every time the robot was commanded to fire. This was done for color calibration after the match.

We used C++

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

Ok so now that the season is over would any of you that programmed in labview be willing to send me the code for tracking? i could never figure out how to track properly.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

We were in C++, but our general idea could be adapted to Labview:

You need a gyro and the camera

1) Set up a PID controller to maintain your robot's heading at some set target (sensor input: gyro. setpoint input: some variable, let's call it targetHeading. PID output: a virtual joystick's x axis).
2) Whenever the camera detects a target, set targetHeading to (your current heading + angle offset that the camera sees the target). The robot will point itself at the target.

Having a PID heading controller is also useful if you want to run along the side of the field against the wall to pick up balls. With human control, robots tend to spin off because of the higher-grip carpet. With a heading controller, it automatically adjusts your motor's power levels to maintain its orientation relative to the wall, allowing for long runs of picking up the balls that gather on the outside of the field.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

We had our camera tracking working for our second to last match I think, and we scored 6/7. Our robot had our camera mounted to our turret, so we could estimate the error in angle based on the position of the target in the image. We would add that error to the angle that the turret was pointing (found by potentiometer) to get our final error. And since your PID loop really just needs error, this will skip the need for a gyro to a point, since it won't remember target location.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

As I understand your system, your potentiometer is fulfilling approximately the same purpose as our gyro. It is providing a heading of the object that does the shooting. Since we can't use a potentiometer to figure out our robot's heading, we have to use the gyro.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

I wish that were exactly the case. Unlike a using a PID+gyro, our system returns to going straight when there is no target in sight (or continues turning at the same rate, depending on how we want it) whereas with a gyro you can remember an angle and PID to the angle, effectively turning to the last known location.
Otherwise, they work in essentially the same manner

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

You guys had an awesome display of autonomous scoring! It was fun to watch it track down and shoot.

We wished that robot scoring during auto had a higher point value.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

So I guess most teams who used the camera used C++ but did anyone use LabView I would love to see the code for LabView

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

I also noticed that most teams using the camera were C++ teams.

Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it, we wish auto would have been worth more this year as well. Though WPI will be giving us 10 balls for autonomous at BattleCry.

Re: How many Robots at the nationals had an operational Camera Track Autonomous?
 

40 had an extremely impressive auto mode, I remember one match on Gailieo they drove almost the entire length of the field to get to an opposing trailer and then continued to drain all 7 balls into the trailer. I agree that they should of had a higher point value for getting balls into the opposing trailers in auto, but I think implementing that would have made the game much more confusing for spectators.