Other camera other than Axis

[crollison]

Rookie here, since the Axis Camera was not included in the KOP and it is out of stock on First Choice I was wondering if it is possible to use any other brand of wifi camera. We have some D-Link wireless cameras, but I didn't know if it would be possible to interface with them. I'm guessing no, but thought I would ask. Thanks.

[omgnocomms]

It is important to note that according to Section 4.1.9¹,

Originally Posted by FRC Game Manual

R56
One (1) D-Link wireless bridge (P/N: DAP-1522), hardware revision B, is the only permitted device for communicating to and from the ROBOT during the MATCH.

R61
All signals must originate from the OPERATOR CONSOLE and be transmitted to the ROBOT via the ARENA network.

R62
No form of wireless communication shall be used to communicate to, from, or within the ROBOT, except those required per R56 and R61 (e.g. radio modems from previous FIRST competitions and Bluetooth devices are not permitted on the ROBOT during competition).

wireless cameras may not be used. However, you may use a standard ethernet-based camera, provided that you can configure it to operate in one of the allowed ports, and that it can be set to operate within the bandwidth limit, as per R59 of Section 4.1.9¹,

Originally Posted by FRC Game Manual

R59
Communication between the ROBOT and the OPERATOR CONSOLE is restricted as follows:

Network Ports:
TCP 1180: This port is typically used for camera data from the cRIO to the Driver Station (DS) when the camera is connected to port 2 on the 8-slot cRIO (P/N: cRIO-FRC). This port is bidirectional.
TCP 1735: SmartDashboard, bidirectional
UDP 1130: Dashboard-to-ROBOT control data, directional
UDP 1140: ROBOT-to-Dashboard status data, directional
HTTP 80: Camera connected via switch on the ROBOT, bidirectional
HTTP 443: Camera connected via switch on the ROBOT, bidirectional


Teams may use these ports as they wish if they do not employ them as outlined above (i.e. TCP 1180 can be used to pass data back and forth between the ROBOT and the DS if the Team chooses not to use the camera on port 2).

Bandwidth: 7 Mbits/second

The FMS Whitepaper has more details on how to check and optimize bandwidth usage.

and provided that the camera follows the rest of the Robot Rules outlined in Section ⁴.

[Greg McKaskle]

It has been a few years since the cameras were selected. At the time we looked at DLink and a number of other IP cameras and found very high latency, like on the order of 700ms. Axis was selected because of its consistent API across products and its low latency.

If you look at other cameras, be sure to consider how they will be used and be aware that the WPILib camera code is specific to Axis cameras. I'd guess that any of the Axis M10 series cameras should be pretty compatible.

Greg McKaskle

[jasp]

My team used another camera for auto targeting last year. If you want to use it for auto targeting or something that needs to be programmed it is possible but very difficult.

[tdressel]

If you go to AXIS, the 206 and M1011 models are discontinued. The 206 model refers you to the M1011 model. The M1011 model refers you to the M1013 model.

QUESTION: Anyone out there used the M1013 model?

QUESTION: If you are interested in getting an additional camera, would you play it safe and buy the discontinued models (206 and M1011), or would you go for the supported model (M1013)?

[Greg McKaskle]

The 1013 has a wider lens, so the vision code will need a different angle for distance calculation. I also don't have one to test with yet, but it looks like a good camera and the Axis APIs are generally portable.

Greg McKaskle

[charr]

To widen out this discussion...
What exactly are the camera requirements? Are we prevented from using a USB webcam connected to our own onboard computer?

[ekapalka]

Originally Posted by charr

To widen out this discussion...
What exactly are the camera requirements? Are we prevented from using a USB webcam connected to our own onboard computer?

As far as I know, USB webcams are fair game. Even the fantastic Microsoft Kinect is allowed (you should look into that. It can see in infrared without an additional halo light, and see in 3D (i.e. allow you to easily gather the distance to an object)). Here's an awesome paper on it if you would like to go that route :)

[faust1706]

I'm honoured to have someone reference my paper. While the kinect is fair game, it has a lot of unneeded aspects (such as the servo motor and the mircophones). We recently bought the asus xtion (found here http://www.allsecurityelectronics.ne...KINPROL_d_A001) it has the same cameras as the kinect, but weighs (about) 3 times less.

If wanting to keep things simple, just go to walmart or some local store and buy a webcam for $10, no fancy mount required. Our mount for the kinect was a C channel with grip tape on the inside and zip ties.

And another paper will be up about my vision program from ultimate ascent before build season (we have a class at our school for independent research and my project is my vision program).