Team 766 Robot *On-board* Video

[octothorpe]

So my side project this year was turning the robot into a videographer. We bought a small, cheap (~$100) solid-state consumer digital video camera and affixed it to the top of the robot's tower with polycarb and a bolt. The basic procedure is: turn it on before the match, turn it off after the match, download video to laptop, crop beginning & end, post. Here is the result:

http://www.vimeo.com/user:160412/clips

Shaky? Yes.
Noisy? Yes.
Low video quality? Yes.
Entertaining? I think so.

If you were at Davis Regional last weekend, there may very well be a shot of your robot in action as seen from the field. Check the clips; they're tagged with team numbers. For reference, the other robots featured so far are: 114, 295, 481, 701, 751, 753, 852, 955, 997, 1072, 1323, 1359, 1458, 1678, 1726, 2063, 2085, 2156, 2159, 2189.

Five more match videos are upcoming next weekend once the bandwidth allotment resets. Last but not least, thanks to everyone who was at Davis for a great competition.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I did this last year in West Michigan with Adam's camera. Unfortunately, we tipped and the video just pointed at the floor the entire match.

This is entertaining.

[tjcasser]

This was absolutely a scream. Thank you for sharing it!

[s_forbes]

Incredible videos!! I need to convince our team to try something like that...

[yodameister]

No need to convince me. I had already planned on doing this very thing.

[IndySam]

Those were great. Thanks for sharing them.

[Rick]

Isnt this illegal? (alternate power source?)

[1359th Scalawag]

It's amazing Match 10 and match 6 show some pretty great views of our robot! A pretty cool different perspective. Amazing videos! Are you going to get the Elimination matches up soon? And Did you have the robo-cam up in our match against you that was 50-51? I would love to see that match from that perspective!

[Jeffrafa]

Originally Posted by Ricksta121

Isnt this illegal? (alternate power source?)

We have done the same thing at one regional last year and all of this year, only ours is a Oregon Scientific video camera advertised as a helmet cam. Last year we ran it on its own batteries, which is technically illegal, but the head inspector let us run with it since it had absolutely no impact on anything else about the robot and offered no advantage.

This year, to avoid any potential conflict, we ran wires into it and powered it on a 5v line supplied from the RC - which makes it entirely legit. The head inspector hassled us about it in Vegas, and feverishly looked for a rule that would disqualify it, but in the end he didn't find any legitimate grounds for removal of the device.

-Jeff

[pakratt1991]

Those are AWESOME!
Thanks

I hope to be able to do this one year

[T3_1565]

I have always wanted to do that. And that right there is why! thats so awesome!!!!

[razor95kds]

Originally Posted by 1359th Scalawag

It's amazing Match 10 and match 6 show some pretty great views of our robot! A pretty cool different perspective. Amazing videos! Are you going to get the Elimination matches up soon? And Did you have the robo-cam up in our match against you that was 50-51? I would love to see that match from that perspective!

we have video of all the matches. we will get the vieos up sometime nexxt week. we are still editing them and compressing them.

[octothorpe]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone! Glad you all enjoyed the videos.

For those who said they wanted to do it themselves, go ahead. The camera is an Aiptek IS-DV2 that we bought at Target for ~$100; it retails on Amazon for $88. Takes 30fps VGA video, records to an SD card, has USB port, uses AAs. The bottom has a tripod mount that fits a standard bolt (don't know which off the top of my head) but you'll want a little more of a mounting than that. Feel free to post/PM if you have more questions.

Originally Posted by 1359th Scalawag

It's amazing Match 10 and match 6 show some pretty great views of our robot! A pretty cool different perspective. Amazing videos! Are you going to get the Elimination matches up soon? And Did you have the robo-cam up in our match against you that was 50-51? I would love to see that match from that perspective!

Yeah, wild perspective, huh? 1359 was awesome at Davis; the shrunken head on the cart was very impressive. Unfortunately we don't have the second QF match – robocam batteries died – but we do have QF 1 and we have the 50-51 match (so close!). Right now the bandwidth on the Vimeo account is full, but I'll try to post the remaining five (Matches 43, 48, 54, 63, and QF 4.1) within a week.

Originally Posted by Jeffrafa

We have done the same thing at one regional last year and all of this year, only ours is a Oregon Scientific video camera advertised as a helmet cam. Last year we ran it on its own batteries, which is technically illegal, but the head inspector let us run with it since it had absolutely no impact on anything else about the robot and offered no advantage.

This year, to avoid any potential conflict, we ran wires into it and powered it on a 5v line supplied from the RC - which makes it entirely legit. The head inspector hassled us about it in Vegas, and feverishly looked for a rule that would disqualify it, but in the end he didn't find any legitimate grounds for removal of the device.

-Jeff

Yes, the camera's always been a bit of a contentious issue with the inspectors. The device is powered separately, by two AA NiMH rechargeables. However, so far we've had relatively lenient inspectors who let it slide because it's not affecting the action of the robot and it's not transmitting any video signal (not like it could). The robocam did go flying off when we tipped over at SVR, but it survived the fall largely undamaged, so at Davis we supplemented the mounting with zip ties and velcro and this satisfied the inspectors.

It's all in good fun anyway.

[octothorpe]

Okay, a new week, a new bandwidth allotment. Here are the last five robocam videos from Davis:

http://www.vimeo.com/user:160412/clips

For reference, the new videos are matches 43, 48, 54, and 63 of the qualifiers, and match 4-1 of the quarterfinals. Teams featured by number: 115, 295, 675, 692, 973, 1072, 1280, 1351, 1359, 1458, 1560, 1671, 1678, 2035, 2063, 2073, 2085, 2189. This list is in addition to the list in my initial post – several teams make appearances in both sets of videos. You can find the videos with your team's robot by doing a search for your team number, since all the clips have been tagged.

Good luck to all the teams competing at Championships – I wish Team 766 could go and take more videos of all the action. Also, I want to congratulate all the rookie teams at Davis this year. It's been great to see so many of you out there, and performing (by and large) very well.

[Ryan Albright]

Originally Posted by octothorpe

Okay, a new week, a new bandwidth allotment.

Hey if you need some space and bandwidth PM me. I have a website that I am building that is off line so my bandwidth is going to waste