FRC Blog - Behind the Scenes at IRI

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http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...-SCENES-AT-IRI

Today's blog comes from Kevin O'Connor, FRC Robotics Engineer.

As some of the best 2015 robots gathered in Indianapolis to create some incredible walls of totes and containers at the Indiana Robotics Invitational, I and a few other members of the FRC staff were behind the scenes working to gather information to help prepare for the 2016 season. FRC Kit of Parts Engineer Jonathan Bryant and FRC Team Advocate Jamee Luce were talking to teams to collect feedback about their experience with the Kit of Parts and more. We recognize that the type of team attending IRI is very specific and that even if all 67 teams participated, we’d have barely more than 2% of the 2015 FRC teams represented. These details will be taken into account when evaluating the feedback, and this will certainly not be the only opportunity teams have to provide feedback (see this blog for more info about the FRC Team Advocate and how to provide feedback). However, when you need to take a trip to AndyMark anyway, dropping by the largest offseason event in FIRST to talk to teams makes sense.

I was at IRI to do some testing of a potential new robot radio for 2016. Some of you may have noticed that finding a new-in-box D-Link DAP-1522 Rev. B is pretty much impossible and surmised that we will be using a different radio in 2016, and you are correct. The DAP-1522 Rev B has been discontinued and we will be using a different robot radio in 2016. With the assistance, and blessing, of the IRI Planning Committee and volunteers, we were able to get some valuable match testing of a potential candidate for the new radio. While things went fairly well, and certainly had no negative impact on teams or matches, we did see some things we need to investigate further before making a final decision. Many thanks to the IRI Planning Committee, IRI volunteers (especially FTA Jerry Budd), and the 11 teams who ran the radio for some or all of the event (20, 33, 330, 469, 1024, 1114, 2468, 2614, 2826, 3015, and 5188).

Lastly, I was observing the setup of the webcast and collecting feedback from the individuals who helped run the Indiana FIRST webcasts this season. FIRST worked with Indiana FIRST this season to pilot a web streaming solution that was used to broadcast all Indiana FIRST events, including IRI, and collecting feedback on that experience is important as we evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot. We will be compiling the results of that pilot and evaluating alternatives as we continue to move towards a way to get better access to real-time and archived video of all FRC events.

The radio in the picture appears to be a Open-Mesh OM5P-AN (possibly an OM2P-HS).