Visibility

[Eric Kosek]

Has anyone else thought about visibility being an issue for drivers this year?

I see the scoring platforms being completely full of stacks especially near the end of the season. With 3 good robots, I could see 6ft stacks almost all the way across both bumps.

That being said you will have two six foot walls that you wont be able to see while you are still trying to stack more bins.
This will cause a problem for teams that wait until the end to stack those co-op bin in the middle.

[Mike Marandola]

The stacks will only make it harder to gather totes near the step. For stacking there will only be visibility issues on the platform closer to the step since the two platforms overlap slightly. Depending on your driver station location you'll be able to see more or less of it.

[AllenGregoryIV]

A suggestion for short robots.

Bike Flag

[catacon]

Put a webcam or two on the robot. You should be able to get images of a useful size at a usable frame rate with the allowed bandwidth. It may not help with knowing the absolute location of the robot on the field, but it should be enough to aid in navigation.

Bike flags are a good idea to quickly find the robot.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Eric Kosek

I see the scoring platforms being completely full of stacks especially near the end of the season.

We can only hope that we have visibility problems! I'm not counting on it...

[tindleroot]

Originally Posted by catacon

Put a webcam or two on the robot. You should be able to get images of a useful size at a usable frame rate with the allowed bandwidth. It may not help with knowing the absolute location of the robot on the field, but it should be enough to aid in navigation.

Bike flags are a good idea to quickly find the robot.

Our team seems to be leaning towards camera - it makes the game kind of like a video game for when we can't see the robot behind stacks

[catacon]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

Our team seems to be leaning towards camera - it makes the game kind of like a video game for when we can't see the robot behind stacks

Exactly. I've heard that kids these days are good at the video games, so they should feel right at home.

[loyal]

could use sensors to stop and or turn the robot away from a stack so as not to knock it down along with a camera.

[x86_4819]

A 360-degree array of ultrasonic sensors happens to be really attractive after reading how easy it is to knock stuff over. The drivers could get little red arrows on their camera feed if they are getting close to any tipsy stacks!

[faust1706]

"why not an aerial camera?" I suggest half jokingly.

[Jarren Harkema]

I love this idea.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...15&postcount=7

[faust1706]

Exactly what I was thinking. It could even be something you make at competition if you realize visibility becomes a problem.

[ToddF]

You who want to drive via video, talk to some people who have tried it. We've found that the video is too laggy for useful navigation. This is especially true when connected to the field network. It might work great in your lab, but then be useless in competition.

[faust1706]

What if in your driver station, you have a webcam hooked up to a sbc like a pi or an odroid, and then have dual monitors, one with your usual driver station stuff, and the other monitor displaying what the webcam on a ten foot high pole sees? The pi would be on a closed system, so fps won't drop depending on if you're in the lab or at competition?

*I have no idea if this is legal. I haven't read through the entirety of a game manual since 2013.

[TheThings]

My team recently discussed this dilemma and briefly considered a camera but ultimately ruled it out. The video feed typically lags due to the field connection and we didn't want to try to drive with that. I'm not saying its impossible just not preferable.