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Unread 29-01-2012, 09:18
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Re: The kinect on the Robot

Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle View Post
It is a little off topic, but I'd like to hear more about this perfect system that broke when it got to the real field. What did it process? Did it use the retroreflective tape? Why did it break?

I think that sort if information is very valuable to the teams trying to do a vision system. A list of tests that likely make your code fail is often more valuable than anything else you can be given.

Personally, I would want to see the Kinect solution work outside on a cloudy day and with fluorescent and other lights behind the DS wall and shining into the camera. Those are the environmental factors that will be challenging when using the Kinect. We can't see IR, so we don't really know IR pollution until we use a special camera. Personally, I'd love to see teams succeed with Kinect and with camera, and with IMUs. Just make auto exciting to watch.

Greg McKaskle
The biggest mistake we made was mounting the camera low. Essentially last year there was no reason to have a bottom peg with reflective tape, because you would also get the reflection off the aluminum plates of the driver stations. Of course we had built our tracking system looking at a black plate that didn't reflect as much as the FIRST field. Had we mounted the camera at the top of the robot we may have had a different experience, but we also would have been blinding our drivers. This year you wont be blinding your drivers, but you may be blinding the other drivers, which may or may not be against the rules.

So the first piece of advice I could give is mount your camera as high as you can.

Second would be look at this frame from the field over and over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...GQ95_I#t=31 s

One question I have is how does the half inch smoked poly look to a kinect or a camera. The camera may pick up the supports of the baskets and the player station framing.

Finally even though you are using your own light source, the further out you get, the more impact ambient light will have. I would test you vision system from every distance you intend to use it at.

If it can't be calibrated in 5 minutes, you'll probably have a tough time calibrating it at competition.
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