[protoserge]

Look into using the Kinect for next year if you haven't already been exploring it. The sensor capability is pretty impressive. We have been testing the Kinect with a nano-ITX form factor computer.

In outdoor full-sun tests, we were able to get approximately 60' recognition using a flashlight beamed on the reflective tape. I do not recollect if this was using the IR or electro-optical sensor. We were using a circular polarizer to cut down reflected light as well.

Our mentor lead is out this week, but I can get more information when he returns.

Last year, we used a purple (red + blue) LED light source to make a custom color for our 3D vision system. In LogoMotion, we learned that green was not a good color choice due to the field scoring projection screen had green squares behind the pegs/goal height. This green would actually cause the single-camera vision system to go off target.

Additionally, one of the major hurdles with vision processing is available field bandwidth. You may need to operate at very low framerates and resolution, so keep that in mind when designing your system. This is one of the issues that has lead us to pursue on-robot vision targeting using the Kinect.