Camcorder at driver's station

[JesseK]

TLDR: Turns out the student in the OP's post was perfectly legal this year. The scenario presented seems like a specific case where the student could have used some advisement at the event, and then eventually approached the judge with findings. Most judges who speak up about a technicality do know better than kids 9/10 of the time, but they are also (in my experience) very welcoming to be corrected when politely presented with fact-based evidence.

I think the strongest argument is for allowing the camera is for "tracking strategy", but only if the camera is held the entire time. A ref could easily say that any non-official 'thing' on the D/S table is part of the OPERATOR CONSOLE since often joysticks & gamepads are left on the D/S table. It would then violate T-26-F-i if used as a strategy device because it is then considered as part of the OPERATOR CONSOLE. And yet it can't be part of the OPERATOR CONSOLE in the OP's case, because that (weirdly enough) is not allowed either (see #3 below).

T26-1 is pretty explicit in what is and isn't allowed, and the candidates in T26-1 which may allow a camera are the OPERATOR CONSOLE and a "strategy device". OPERATOR CONSOLE is not defined in the Glossary. It comes from the robot rules [R91] - [R96]. R92, in a hypoxia-inducing (and therefore memory-inhibiting) appositive phrase, defines what OPERATOR CONSOLE actually means. I've bolded it here:

Originally Posted by R92

The OPERATOR CONSOLE, the set of COMPONENTS and MECHANISMS used by the DRIVERS and/or HUMAN PLAYER to relay commands to the ROBOT, must include a graphic display to present the Driver Station disgnostic information. It must be positioned within the OPERATOR CONSOLE so that the screen display can be clearly seen during Inspection and in a MATCH.

1. To be considered part of the OPERATOR CONSOLE, a camera must deliver its data to the D/S Laptop and therefore closing the loop on operator controls. This is why pole-mounted camera feeds were legal, irrespective of strategy.
2. To be considered part of strategy without violating T-26-F-i, the camera must never be considered part of the OPERATOR CONSOLE for the duration of the match (including auton). Thus we can conclude that it must be attached to one of the drivers the whole time.
3. A camera that is hard-mounted to the driver's station laptop yet does not display its feed to the display is in violation of T26-1-F-i, given R92.

Seems like we need a rule update if we want #3 allowed. Also, fun fact: given R92 verbiage, there is never a reason for teams to take up more than 60" of space with 2 joysticks and a laptop. I know for a fact that many teams were outside of this bound after joysticks were set on the D/S table :-/