Two Cameras on robot?

[Greg McKaskle]

Superman must be a wimp.

Last season I tested with three cameras, and the steps are to configure the cameras with unique IPs in the range of 11-20. Then open the source to the dashboard, duplicate the loop and display. It turns out that three streaming 640x480 full speed streams will bog down an old laptop, but the rest of the system was fine.

Greg Mckaskle

[Chomantha1073]

Last year we had two cameras on our robot: one on the chassis right above a large LED array to track the retroreflective tape and to see if a tube was in front of us when we were trying to hang, and one right behind our claw so we could see if we were aligned in autonomous and in teleop. We used the data from both of these cameras to watch matches from the robot's view after they were finished. When we were using the Classmate in 2010, we sometimes had issues with the video files making the computer slow down or crash, but when we switched to a more powerful laptop laptop, we were able to get through last year with no errors due to video files. Our software was only actively analyzing one camera for automonous hanging in teleop and the other was displayed on the driver station.

TL;DR: It's definitely possible to put two cameras on the robot. We've found it extremely helpful both when picking objects off of the floor and when manipulating the game pieces. We haven't tried putting a Kinect on the robot in sync with a regular camera, but we found that using two normal cameras is pretty straightforward.

Chomantha
(Cho and Samy)
Co-CEOs 1073

[Lil' Lavery]

I'm no expert on the control system, but I know teams have used multiple cameras before. Even with the IFI control system. Definitely possible.

[sand500]

Last time i check, there wasnt really a rule on how many cameras you could use. its just all communication has to go through the dlink. But I dont know if there is a rule against using a non wireless router connected to the dlink. that way you could use maybe like 6 cameras?