Quote:
Originally Posted by s_forbes
It would be a lot of fun. I like fun!
|
I think we might have different definitions of the word fun. Personally my definition does not include unnecessary field delays (we get enough necessary ones as is). I could definitely see this happening though, provided someone can come up with a system that might be less susceptible than the current pneumatics system to leaks. I can't say I know enough about hydraulics to know how likely this is to happen, but the visceral "I don't want fluid all over my field and someone else's robot" reaction is, I think, going to stick around until someone proves there's a workable solution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jared Russell
...as well as a few capabilities that have not yet been widely featured on an FRC field, but might in the next couple of years. In most cases here, I think the real opportunity for innovation is from the commoditization of robotics technologies from consumer products and early-stage robotics industries ramping up capability while driving down cost: - 2D/3D Scanning LIDAR
- Solid-state LIDAR
- Torque control
- Robot localization / SLAM - Precise drift-free robot pose estimation by recognizing landmarks on the field
- Fast, accurate vision tracking of less structured targets
- Brushless motors
- Hydraulics and hybrid motor/fluid actuators
- Low-cost, low-backlash gearing
|
Love this list. LIDAR is definitely going to be a much more real option in the near future. We're definitely in the bumpy/expensive part of adoption now, but this is certainly a thing where consumer products will help drive prices down to the point where we can get modules designed for competitive robotics.
I think localization is going to get there sooner rather than later. I know a few teams that have been experimenting with it in FTC using the image targets and Vuforia, and I could imagine a similar scheme being used in FRC. FRC/competition robotics fields already have a number of features that make them much better for this than "real-world" scenarios, so it's really a matter of either the commoditization effect that you mentioned or FIRST making things a little easier for teams. As a side note, I would love to see a challenge eventually, once localization becomes more mainstream, where mapping is a significant challenge in a longer autonomous period. Perhaps a semi-randomized field, not quite like Stronghold, but similar.
Something else that might become more of a mainstream over the next few years is roller-sized mecanum / "vectored intake" wheels. We aren't quite at the point where they're commodity for FRC (given most of the teams that use them like this are using 4" versions), but I think that will get here soon too. Not quite as far out as anything you've mentioned, but I also don't think they're really highly accessible to average teams yet. I suppose that isn't a leap so much as a step forward, though.