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Unread 26-06-2016, 13:20
David Lame David Lame is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2015
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David Lame is a jewel in the roughDavid Lame is a jewel in the roughDavid Lame is a jewel in the roughDavid Lame is a jewel in the rough
Rules Change I Would Like to See - Batteries

Under the current rules, all systems must be powered from the single 12 volt battery, with the exception of sensor/computing systems that have their own built in battery.

I would like to have the "built in battery" portion removed, allowing separate batteries for coprocessors such as the Raspberry Pi.

The reasoning behind it is that there are sensors and processor boards that are meant to run on USB power, and may not be easy to hook up with anything else. The USB port of the RoboRio can't supply enough power for these systems. It would make it easier for teams to make use of more advanced sensing and control strategies for which the RoboRio is not well suited.

The exact wording could be problematic. I'm not sure I could come up with a perfect wording of the rule, but if someone could, then it could work. I would want a rule that allows "portable phone charger" type power supplies to be used to power those auxiliary boards that are designed to run vision coprocessors or similar algorithms.

Arguments for:

We are trying to encourage young people to use cutting edge technology. This makes it easier.


Since it is only used for computing, there are no safety issues with supplying power to motors and actuators.

The current rules encourage the use of tools with built in power devices, which might not be the best for the job.

Arguments against:

It makes the inspection process more complicated. An inspector might miss some sort of "sneak circuit" that could allow an actuator to be activated when the robot is supposed to be disabled.

Although it allows use by students of cutting edge technology, it also makes it easier for mentors to put in systems that are far beyond student capabilities, allowing an even greater advantage to "mentor built" bots.

"Making things easier" is not always a worthy goal for a First program. Working within constraints might be more important, so the current constraint is simply an engineering challenge that teams have to work within.

Although the intent is straightforward, the actual wording of the rules might be extremely complicated. If the rule is too simple, it might be easy to exploit loopholes for unintended capability. If it is too complicated, it might result in accidental violations due to misunderstanding the rule, or misinterpretations by inspectors resulting in confusion and controversy at competitions.



And now, fill in your own advantages and disadvantages. This is just something I have in mind. I am not adamant that we need to do this right away. I simply find myself wanting to do some Raspberry Pi work with some students, and I find that I will have to do some rather odd things to power the board, that might not be the safest for the equipment. (There's no human safety issue that I can see.) It would be easier if I could just velcro on one of those battery power packs and power the Pi directly. It may be that there is an obvious problem with this idea that I haven't thought about, that might turn it into a very bad idea.

An alternative would simply be to modify the next generation RoboRio or control system boards to provide more USB power. I don't know how far in advance these things are designed, but my guess is that there are already modifications in the works. I just don't know if we are likely to get new or modified control systems in 2, 3, or 4 years.
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