What new technology will FIRST have this year?

[Cuog]

I am fairly certain that Fuel Cells will be involved in the Game this year

Also I hope that not much else is added and instead of throwing new stuff at us the Game Design Committee encourages us to perfect what we have.

[JoeXIII'007]

I cannot say that FIRST will unroll new technology for robots.
But I do hope they put something cool on the field this year (I still remember the IR beacons from 2004, that was something great.)

And please, no more 'heading for the light.' Its beautiful, yes, but I think its time to go back to some line tracking or IR seeking or something rather invisible and classic. A game that does not literally require a single piece of technology to win. Multiple win condition possibilities would be great.

I know I wrote this a bit oddly, I'm just throwing ideas out.

-Joe

***PSSSTTTTT*** this is my senior year, don't disappoint.

[Simon Strauss]

Any possibility for sound tracking, its a direction that FIRST has not yet gone into, has endless real world applications, would be fun to do and seems possible.

An even more insane alternative would be gaseous oder tracking with something unharmful that could be picked up by sensors, possible and useful but most likely too wasteful to be done over and over.

[RoboMadi]

Originally Posted by Simon Strauss

Any possibility for sound tracking, its a direction that FIRST has not yet gone into, has endless real world applications, would be fun to do and seems possible.

I really doubt it. Even with the CMUcam, especially in Chesapeake, our robot was going crazy after the indoor lights instead of green target. So with the sound tracking system, things can go even worse. Especially when you have crazy FIRSTers shouting in the bleachers.

[sidenote] During Medical Automation Conference in Leesburg VA, i talked to Dean about the possibilities of Sound detection/tracking system on a robot or a wheel chair; his opinion was quite against it.[/sidenote]

Imad

[artdutra04]

The CMUcam will definitely be back in the 2007 game.

Line-following has not part of an FRC game since 2004; it may or may not make a comeback. Even in 2003 and 2004 when there was line-following, very few teams were actually followed the line. The same can be said for the IR beacon in 2004.

Sound tracking is [highly] unlikely, because there is way too much variation on the acoustics of the different venues where FIRST competitions are held. In addition, FIRST competitions are loud enough as is - let's not intentionally make them louder.

Sonar/ultrasonic sensors are a possibility, but then again they've always been a possibility. There isn't anything too high-tech them, at least not nearly to the level of the CMUcam.

Accelerometers, gyros, and the encoders will be back. The trend over the past few years has been for FIRST to encourage use of "high-tech" sensors such as these.

If we have another year of a wide-open field, bumpers and anti-wedge rules will be back. If we have a field like 2004 or 2005, then you may see a relaxing of these rules and/or the elimination of bumpers.

Kitbot and KoP transmissions will be back.

Fuel cells will most likely not be part of the 2007 FRC game; this is why the Green Machine competition is a separate program this year.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Maybe we'll get something that can do this..

http://www.ics.forth.gr/~argyros/myp...obtracking.pdf

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by RoboMadi

Heres my guess (and yes its in directly from Dave, as he made me think about it)

Obviously some sort of sensors.......... mainly to prevent running into other stuff (robots, elements, etc). Or some sort of technology that will prevent a robot from entering or running into a certain area; and if a robot does, it will lose points.

Last May, during Space Day, Dave came to me and told me about how he was talking to Woodie on the phone and 612's ElectronicBabyWalker might have helped shaping 2007 game.......

What!! No!! Don't tell me the game pieces next year will be human babies! That will be the hardest game ever!

Jk

On a serious note, I would like to see a vision system that is easier to program. The camera they provided this year was great, but my team didn't have a hope of using it. I think it would be neat if they gave us something a bit easier, and perhaps a bit more reliable

[Peter Matteson]

I'm thinking we will have a positioning system built into the field. The idea has been kicked around a bit for the last few years. We have 3-4 beacons on the field that allow us to determine our position.

No IR that was a problem in 2004. I believe camera auto-focus mechanisms threw off the tracking ability in practice.

Fuel Cells on robots and in venues won't happen. We aren't allowed to bring Hydrogen into the venues. We had to purge our H2 bottle in the Fuel Cell vehicle we brought to UTC last year because of this concern. (See my who am I? for a picture)

The other item I think we may see is RFID. The goal only is able to be used when an RIFD tag is appriatly located by an alliance partner. At least that is something I want to see

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

I'm thinking we will have a positioning system built into the field. The idea has been kicked around a bit for the last few years. We have 3-4 beacons on the field that allow us to determine our position.

No IR that was a problem in 2004. I believe camera auto-focus mechanisms threw off the tracking ability in practice.

That would be awesome. 116 toyed with a field positioning system using a combination of encoders, gyro, and the IR beacons in 2004, but couldn't quite get it fully operational. Had we had a 3rd beacon to triangulate, it would have been so much easier.