Wearables in FRC

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by marshall

For the past few seasons some of our students have engaged in some research projects around wearable technology. Both haptic feedback for the drivers as well as connecting our drive team to sensors for data acquisition and analysis.

How do you amend the current rules for FRC to make it more friendly for this kind of research and technology usage? Currently, drivers must stand away from their controllers and can't be connected to them. Wireless usage in the driver stations is prohibited as well.

What kinds of wearable technology are you or your team using today and how are you using them? Is anyone using fitbits and the like to track their drive team throughout an event?

Alternative title: Why 900 is one of the coolest teams in FRC.

So the current rules seem to be in place for a few reasons-

1. So people don't "cheat" and control their robots during autonomous
2. So people don't accidentally control their robots during autonomous

As is, however, there have been exceptions to this rule, including Kinect/Cheesyvision feedback in previous years, and the simple rule that says you can save your driver station from falling if that's likely to happen.

I think there could be some clause in the rules that allows for cool technology like this to be encouraged with special permission from the LRI or something like that, with the honor system applied here, as it already is in so many areas of FRC.