IP Camera Software

[JohnRRRR]

Is it legal to display feeds from a camera on the robot through software other than LabVIEW on the driver computer?

[apalrd]

Is there any rule which prohibits it?

[rich2202]

We have opened a browser, and directly attached to the Camera.

[JohnRRRR]

The rule that seems to address software that I see is R91: "The Driver Station software provided on the National Instruments website is the only application permitted to specify and communicate the operating mode (i.e. Autonomous/Teleop) and operating state (Enable/Disable) to the ROBOT." I wanted to make sure that "communicate the operating the mode" meant just setting the mode and not all communications during operation mode.

[Greg McKaskle]

That rule prohibits using one of the available Apps or other software to enable the robot on the field. Mode refers to enable/disable/auto/tele modes of operation. This is done for safety reasons and to simplify troubleshooting.

I do not believe there is a rule preventing you from running other SW on your dashboard computer and using that SW to display images from your camera or data from your robot.

Greg McKaskle

[sanelss]

We plan on running a browser tab for a remote camera stream and also a tightvnc session(to keep an eye on the vision processing tablet) and as long as you fall within the rules you'll be fine.

A. Network Ports:
i. TCP 1180: Camera data from the roboRIO to the Driver Station (DS) when the camera is
connected the roboRIO via USB, bi-directional.
ii. TCP 1735: SmartDashboard, bi-directional
iii. UDP 1130: Dashboard-to-ROBOT control data, uni-directional
iv. UDP 1140: ROBOT-to-Dashboard status data, uni-directional
v. HTTP 80: Camera connected via switch on the ROBOT, bi-directional
vi. HTTP 443: Camera connected via switch on the ROBOT, bi-directional
vii. UDP/TCP 554: Real-Time Streaming Protocol for h.264 camera streaming, bidirectional
viii. UDP/TCP 5800-5810: Team Use, bi-directional
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 USB).

B. Bandwidth: no more than 7 Mbits/second.

normal http is port 80 so you can keep a tab open of a remote stream no problem but even a single camera can easily breach the 7mbit limit so you have to be careful here and do some proper testing to see what you can get away with. a proper encoded video stream will suit you far better than mjpeg. (.h264 gstreamer anyone?)

we're able to do everything we want and still stay within the limit but you need to be $@#$@#$@#$@# sure you fall within those rules or your setup simply won't work during competitions.