CMUcam Results!

[Matt Adams]

Originally Posted by Terry Sherman

in an attempt to quantify it we noticed that ~45-55 feet we got the same angle feedback from the camera, so yes we could track and track consistently, so we're accurate, but the precision is not very great.

I don't want to dillute the thread here... but does your team (does any team?) really think they're going to launch from 45 feet away? I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I think that your definition of precision might be a little optimistic.

At those distances, the angle is 25 and 20 degrees for 45 and 55 feet away respectively. That's +/-5 degrees at that distance. If this was happening at 20 and 25 feet, I would be disappointed.

Feel free to answer honestly: Have I set my personal 'realistic & reliable' shooting distances of 20 feet (absolute max) too low?

Matt

[Brandon Holley]

Honestly, to be safe shooting from 20 feet is a very nice distance. I'm sure most teams are going to be going for some sort of range around there or closer to the target. BUT, what happens if you have an awesome defender on you, and you cannot get any closer with timing running out, maybe the only way to make a shot is to fire from 40 ft???? Even if you are not as accurate as you are when you are closer (which is a given), you can still have a CHANCE to make a shot.......If you unload all of your balls at the target, maybe you can hit a few, and turn the match around in your favor. I think having the long ball could end up winning a lot of matches!

[Terry Sherman]

One of the inputs to our design team working on the shooter is how realiable the targeting system can be. There is no need for them to try and get distance of the 40+ range if we can't target there. Realistically we're not likely to shoot anywhere near that but, and if we could it would require a great deal of investigation and effort over say a 20 foot shooter. We wanted to determine if they could grant us that type of system, could we really use it. From our testing it doesn't seem likely we could use it so our shooting distance will likely be shorter...

-Terry