CMUCam for drivers

[Zanella BR]

Originally Posted by Ianworld

Well if you can't use it to send video back to the drivers, how about using it to record the 15 seconds of autonomous so that you can play back what it saw, just to give you some idea of why certain things happened. It would be a very very usefull debugging tool.

Yes, I think it's a useful thing.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Ianworld

Well if you can't use it to send video back to the drivers, how about using it to record the 15 seconds of autonomous so that you can play back what it saw, just to give you some idea of why certain things happened. It would be a very very usefull debugging tool.

Where would you store the 15 seconds of digitized video? There is not enough memory in the RC.

-dave

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Guy with video camera on side of field = more practical.

I mean cmon.. the video resolution is like 177 x 200 or something stupid like that. Its made to find color blobs, not to take pictures.

[CJO]

I don't know, the camera itself is very low res, on the other hand, I think that the rules would allow you to mount a small wireless camera if it had been cleared with FIRST engineering beforehand. You could not allow anyone on the competition floor to see this feed, but you can buy very small UHF (TV channell 16-22 are cheap) transmitters. I have always thought that it would be good to have some on-board video to use for promotional purposes.

On another front, we have played around with using mini ultrasonic sensors to gather data, encoding it on an IC, sending the completed packets back through to the dashboard and using the laptop connected to the dashboard to reconstruct a robot view. I do not think that this would violate any rules since we can have external processors this year, and we would be sending the signal through the FRC modem. We were thinking of using one to help us line up with the remote loading stations.

[the_undefined]

Originally Posted by CJO

I don't know, the camera itself is very low res, on the other hand, I think that the rules would allow you to mount a small wireless camera if it had been cleared with FIRST engineering beforehand. You could not allow anyone on the competition floor to see this feed, but you can buy very small UHF (TV channell 16-22 are cheap) transmitters. I have always thought that it would be good to have some on-board video to use for promotional purposes.

On another front, we have played around with using mini ultrasonic sensors to gather data, encoding it on an IC, sending the completed packets back through to the dashboard and using the laptop connected to the dashboard to reconstruct a robot view. I do not think that this would violate any rules since we can have external processors this year, and we would be sending the signal through the FRC modem. We were thinking of using one to help us line up with the remote loading stations.

As far as R66 you are allowed to recieve Data from a Laptop during competition, but sending data (for outsourcing proccessing) may not be include in that or??

<R66> Teams are permitted to connect a portable computing device (Laptop computer, PDAs, etc.) to the RS232 Output of the Dashboard Port of the Operator Interface for the purpose of displaying feedback from the robot while competing in Competition matches. Please note that AC power will not be available at the playing field so these devices will have to run on internal batteries.

[CJO]

Allow me to clarify.

Ultra sonic => Microprocessor (compression) => FRC controller => dashboard

It is OK to have subsidiary processors on the robot, they simply cannot send motor control signals. If this was not the case, the camera would be illegal.

[the_undefined]

Originally Posted by CJO

Allow me to clarify.

Ultra sonic => Microprocessor (compression) => FRC controller => dashboard

It is OK to have subsidiary processors on the robot, they simply cannot send motor control signals. If this was not the case, the camera would be illegal.

Ah ok, so the Dashboard Output is Read Only ok ...

[emusteve]

Originally Posted by the_undefined

Ah ok, so the Dashboard Output is Read Only ok ...

Yes, dashboard is read-only. If you were to send commands back to the robot, then the laptop could operate as an outboard processor and would effectively be part of the robot. (Boy, wouldn't that just blow your budget out of the water!)

That said, and on the subject of dashboards... the rules state that the Dashboard port can be used to feed "a computing device" for operator feedback. So, if you can't afford a laptop, a Basic Stamp connected to an Epson LCD display and some lights would essentially cover the requirement as long as the assembly were self powered (batteries).

Steve