Using an aerial view, tracking all the field targets would be just as simple as background substraction. However, I have great doubts that FIRST will actually do this. However, there is a way how you can simulate this. Put a camera at the driver station window, as high as possible. Use a suction cup to keep it in place. If done right, the camera should be above most of the robots. Now, you can apply a perspective transform to make the image look like an aerial view. This would look quite close to an aerial view. Of course, you are using a perspective transform and transforming nearly 90 degrees so there will be a heavy loss of resolution, but that shouldn't cause any problems. Just use a 1080p camera. All the processing is quite easy, so it wouldn't hurt to use a high resolution camera. After the perspective transform, you can scale it down for your actual tracking!
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Originally Posted by BBray_T1296
Quadcopters in crouded rooms/arena floors is really a no-go. I know the stuff is relatively reliable but it makes a lot of people (even myself) worried when we see a chopper with no blade guards hovering over the crowded stands.
^This happened at TRR for a little bit
I am all for the versatility and capability of quadcopters/etc, but it only has to come down once to be a major problem.
Also FTC events have major problems with other unencrypted 2.4GHz stuff is going on in the same roof. Their system does not handle bandwidth pollution hardly at all before faulting.
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I thought of this really cool idea a long time ago that could make quadcopters safe in an application like this -- MAGNETS!!!. A servo could be on a worm-gear drive, lowering and raising a magnet into a separator tube. The magnet is strong enough to lift the entire robot (maybe 2-3KGs). Now, what happens is that during setup, the quadcopter, on which this is mounted will fly up to some steel truss on the ceiling. The servo would be then triggered to move the magnet out, so that the craft can hold onto the truss. The craft then could shut down it's propellers and just idle. For safety measures, an accelerometer could be onboard to alert the craft if it falls, so it can turn on it's propellers and safely land! I am pretty sure that would be extremely safe and a good way to get an aerial view of the field. To make the craft come down, it would first start it's propellers and create enough thrust to keep itself in air. The magnet would then be retracted, causing the craft to detach. The craft can now fly down safely for it to be picked up by field staff and stashed for cleanup