Vision Tracking Warning

[Dominick Ferone]

Just a heads up for teams who may not have competed yet. At the NYC Regional, we had planned to do vision tracking. Along with a few other teams, but those plans were quickly changed after getting on field. The venue had set up additional lights that were angled down to the field, presumably to light it up more so people in the stands could see it better. But the lights were bright enough and hitting the tower in a way it reflected off into our camera. We had 1 or 2 matches where during auto we could see the tower but lose it when we rotated, possibly due to the lights flooding or camera. We weren't the only team having this problem. Talking to a few teams they also determined it was the added lights by the venue.

So just a heads up, a back up plan may be needed for teams at venues that are brightly lit.

[NotInControl]

Do you have an example image which was washed out?

Using some camera setting tweaks you can usually overcome different lighting at different events, such as reducing camera exposure, and brightness.

This will reduce the overall light entering the camera, and since your light source intensity is higher (I presume), these changes to the camera settings should help isolate your light entering the camera from noisy light sources.

If you are using the axis IP camera, you can tweak the camera settings directly from the IP camera webpage.

If you are using a USB camera, you can tweak it with what every method you use to interface with its driver. I.e. v4l on RoboRio or directly within OpenCV or what ever capture/filter program you use.

[Dominick Ferone]

I can talk to the team to see if they saved an image. I know Rembrandts were planning on recording the dash footage to review it later.

[SenorZ]

I saw two teams' robots turrets/shooters randomly moving around at the Los Angeles regional. One even took aim right at the sideline crowds! It didn't fire but it made a lot of people put up their guard.

The lights were really bright surrounding the field and made it hard to see the live stream and scores on the big screen.

[bhsrobotics1671]

We had a lot of issues at CVR early on with tracking the images. We were able to have our code capture snapshots of the image every 5 seconds and then use those images to re-thresh while in the pits between matches. Eventually we got a very good thresh after adjusting camera white balance and gain values.

Unfortunately after getting all of that sorted out we faced issues with our turret PID/encoder and were unable to get things 100% at the event.

We hope to have a solution for the other issues by the time we compete at the Sacramento Regional.

[Tem1514 Mentor]

We needed sunglasses in the drivers stations, ref tables, grandstands and just about anywhere around the field. Was not at all pleasant.

[Dominick Ferone]

Originally Posted by Tem1514 Mentor

We needed sunglasses in the drivers stations, ref tables, grandstands and just about anywhere around the field. Was not at all pleasant.

One team apparently put the lens from sunglasses over there camera to help better their vision tracking.

[Cothron Theiss]

Putting a lens the color of the light you're projecting over your camera can help cut out a lot of extra light. For example if you're using green LED's, put a green lens or a transparent piece of plastic over your camera. It helped our vision tracking out a ton.

[marshall]

If anyone is looking for colored lenses then I recommend doing some searches for sample books of color gels.

[IndieWaves]

Originally Posted by marshall

If anyone is looking for colored lenses then I recommend doing some searches for sample books of color gels.

You can get gel books for Theatre lighting from most theatre stores or entertainment lighting stores. Just ask for a Roscoe, Lee, or Gam Gel Book. They are (supposed to be) free.

[EricH]

Just so everybody's aware:

That extra lighting is a pretty standard regional setup. Almost every regional I've been to in recent memory has had it (there's been one exception, and that used floodlights instead of stage lights). That's about 4 dozen par-type lights on two trusses, with a couple projectors aiming at the screen (which may or may not be on the same truss as about half of the lights) and a couple of extra lights (leko-type) pointing at banners. I want to say that Championship uses something very similar. The pars are arranged and pointed to put a wash over the whole field.

In addition to any robot-based solutions (it's a programming problem, as usual ), it may be possible to talk to the head ref, regional director, and/or FTA to get the production crew to turn the lights down a little bit near the towers, in intensity if nothing else. Can't say for sure, but the best chance would probably be right after the driver's meeting.