[EricH]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

Again, as a theoretical - no hard data here - but there are easier ways than cameras. Requiring each robot to carry a small sensor packet that can tell where the robot is at any point in time would have fixed the crossings issue this year. Maybe in the future, it could even be built into the RIO.

Actually, it wouldn't have totally fixed that issue. You'd have to completely redefine Crossing for that to work automatically--Crossing is determined by bumpers, and making a foolproof system that could tell that the bumpers were clear from a sensor packet (from whom? team/FIRST/other?) that would need to be inside the bumpers would require a lot of complexity. Need to know size + shape + location + orientation of the robot with bumpers, the last two in three dimensions each. It'd be a lot easier for Scales--mount a device or two at the bottom of your bumpers, if they're all above a sensor mounted in the castle wall at the end of a match you're good. (Reasons to deny a Crossing included starting in contact with a defense--see also bad Sally Port crossing--as well as bumpers not finishing clearing and bumpers going over/above the shields.)

Now, they did do something like that in '08, where each robot carried a small IR beacon (or something like that--it was field-supplied with another piece of required equipment) mounted in a known area of the robot--pass under a receiver, get credit. But I don't recall how well that worked.

Can it be done, yes. But to be honest, the second-best tool we have right now is actually cameras, properly pointed, if the rules allow it. The best tool? The 6 pairs of eyes in the heads of the referees. Without those, there is not a good way to tell if the electronics are acting up and not counting stuff properly. And, of course, we sure hope the game is designed so it's a little easier on the refs...