Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Those would me the MARS Rovers, no? I think Dave could shed some light on that subject. ;)

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Probably not the idea of the other people wanting to participate in this, but I don't think a "full autonomous" robot is a good target. A "Human-assisted autonomous" (like hybrid mode?) is a more reasonable target for competition use IMO. In my limited memory of the mars rovers, I remember that even they weren't "fully autonomous". To compensate for the immense lag in transmissions between earth and mars, the human operators on earth would send out high-level commands, and then the rover implements the commands autonomously, doing things such as avoiding rocks in it's path while moving. That's exactly what would be useful in one of these competitions.

Imagine walking to the field with a control board that is one switch: score or block. These tasks are all autonomous, it's just the human operators tell the bot whether to kick that ball or to pin that bot. I'd still call this an excellent project if that was where it went

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

I was aware of the power draw. I'm not saying we should strap on a few 295GTX's in SLI and go from there, but use a smaller processor which draws 100-150 watts max. A low-power dual-core CPU would simply handle off-loading tasks to the GPU and handling I/O to the memory banks and Crio. My old-model 8800 GTS would easily handle the job, and it tops out at ~120 watts.

I guess we'd also need a way to keep a powersupply which can survive even in extreme low voltage situations and keep the current going to the system. As you could witness by watching the DS during a match this year, simply taxing 2 CIM's to stall drops the voltage to 8ish volts from a full battery, more if you have other systems or a damaged battery (as I witnessed when we got down to 5, then witnessed some fluid around it after the match. It was retired).

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Folks - About adding more computing power to an FRC Robot - The last time I looked into them, I thought the Gumstix line offered some attractive options - Blake
http://www.gumstix.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumstix

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Currently attempting to make a board with a PIC controller, mentors gonna help me decide on what though

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Oh $@#$@#$@#$@#, costing me about $100 out of my mom's pocket for all this stuff... $@#$@#$@#$@# it can get expensive real fast

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Cost is one of the reasons why mentors have been encouraging you to consider simulation or emulation. SW development doesn't have to wait for HW completion, and in the real world it typically doesn't.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Although I haven't read the full thread, I would like to say that I think it's feasable, and would love to attempt this over the summer.
We had a concept like this early on, but it was scrapped due to hardware problems-half the sensors it needed didn't get mounted. It definitely wasn't as complete a concept as this, but it should possible with Chopshop's current system. We still have the code saved in svn and hg, so we can get it back. The hardest part would probably be using the camera to see what's going on...

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

The BeagleBoard is another comparable board that costs about $149. It's a lot cheaper than a Gumstix, though it isn't as small. And it uses the same CPU.

BeagleBoard

The BeagleBoard and the Gumstix are running an OMAP3 chip, which as an ARM Cortex-A8 core in it. They are clocked between 500 Mhz and 600 Mhz CPUs with Cortex-A9's are coming out shortly, and look to be very high performers. They are clocked at about 1 Ghz, and have two cores. I'm personally waiting until I can get my hands on an Cortex-A9 before I invest in any hardware for a similar project.

For those of you interested in learning how to do some AI, I recommend looking over the CS188 lecture slides from Berkeley. http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs188...uncements.html I took the class a semester ago, and learned a lot.

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

The BeagleBoard could be a good option. Load a small distro of linux on it, and then communicate over RS-232. Personally I couldn't do it since my mentor would kill me for breaking the CAN-bus :P (do RS-232 multiplexers exist, and more importantly, would they be FRC-legal?

EDIT: Actually, a board with an ethernet port would probably be easier to use. If we put a switch on eth2, we could plug the camera and extra board in and have the alternate board read directly from the camera and do the processing there. It would save a lot of overhead for many teams and bypass any rules issues, since ethernet switches are perfectly legal (2CAN)

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

You can also use SPI, I2C, and CAN for communication, provided you follow the rules.

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

Anyone care to guess how far Spirit or Opportunity can drive fully autonomously during the few minutes a match lasts?

-Kevin

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

I would say about 20ish feet. Given the overall mechanical speed and the environment its in. Plus it needs to be REALLY sure its not going to get hurt wherever its heading. Then again, I would imagine they don't want it going to far with asking for another command because of safety issues.

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

The limiting factor probably isn't mechanical speed...

Re: Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You
 

I actually laughed out load at the first post :D I would love to do it, but our head mentor has zero faith in the programming for who knows what reason. I was told that once she decided the robot was performing fine i wasn't allowed to touch it again until after competition. God himself couldn't convince her to allow the programmers to fully automate our robotn:mad: