Team 766 Robot *On-board* Video

[Qbranch]

Here's an idea... why not have FIRST issue each team a wireless video camera (802.11 or other network to allow multiple cameras) thats required to be on the robot, so that during the match the TV people can put robot-eye-view up on the main monitor or on the webcast .... something like NASCAR?

"Aaand here's the in-car video from the blue alliance.... "....

-q

[1359th Scalawag]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

Here's an idea... why not have FIRST issue each team a wireless video camera (802.11 or other network to allow multiple cameras) thats required to be on the robot, so that during the match the TV people can put robot-eye-view up on the main monitor or on the webcast .... something like NASCAR?

"Aaand here's the in-car video from the blue alliance.... "....

-q

That's a really cool idea! It would be nice to see it happen someday.

About match 43, really close match. I didn't notice your alliance's technical problems before. You can see, right before your robot's gripper breaks and you drop the tube, our robot stops turning properly. Later in the match, you can see our robot somehow limping closer to the ramp. It was a very close match and I'm looking forward to eventually seeing it more clearly in the official videos.

[Zyik]

Watch 48, 973 doesnt move, reason: the rampbot deployed before letting us out. Therefore, we got stuck under it. In our attempts to get away we moved the ramp out of the home zone, netting us a penalty that tied the match. WE don't know if that was the exact penatly or if the rampbot caused it by landing on us. Either way, that match should have been a win. Instead, we ended up with a damaged robot. Very annoying.

Great video though!

[octothorpe]

Originally Posted by 1359th Scalawag

That's a really cool idea! It would be nice to see it happen someday.

Yeah, it is a cool idea, but that'd probably be another $200 going into the KOP cost. And unless you made it mandatory, most teams probably wouldn't bother, so it'd be about as useful as the $200 compressor is to all the non-pneumatic-using teams.

Scalawags, match 43 was definitely a close match, but we were defeated fair and square (can't say quite the same for our first quarterfinal...). I didn't notice your mechanical problems either, which is the flaw of the robocam videos – you can only really focus on whatever the robot is pointed towards.

Zyik, I'd forgotten how your robot got pinned by 1678, that's really tough luck. The match 48 summary's been updated to reflect that, so that people won't wonder where your robot is... At least we netted a tie instead of a loss, but that certainly is frustrating.

[1359th Scalawag]

The thing I would like about a roboCam would be that we could make a really great video with it. You guys could make a video with all the times you scored set up one after another. It would be a pretty impressive video to show to your sponsors!

[octothorpe]

Yeah, with some decent editing you could definitely make a memorable video. Last year the official 766 student videographer expressed interest in this kind of footage, but lately he's been too busy to do much related to multimedia any more. Perhaps if I have spare time over the summer I can try to cobble some sort of clip-compilation video together – it would certainly be a good PR tool. Thanks for the idea.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Ricksta121

Isnt this illegal? (alternate power source?)

It is legal as long as it is drawing power from the +12V or +7 V batteries allowed on the robot (with a 20A or 30A breaker). A fairly simple regulator circuit can be built if it needs a different voltage. The camera cannot transmit (wireless) at 900 MHz or to the driver's station. Technically, it is a custom circuit.

I really think this is great! If the camera had a wider angle (even "fisheye") lens, you could have a better view of other robots approaching or more of the field, crowd, ...

If a wireless camera (at some frequency other than 900 MHz) were used, some really awesome video could be fed to webcast, TV, etc. When FIRST starts producing televised coverage of matches for a broader spectator audience, these sorts of on-board camera views will be very popular. NASCAR has cameras inside the race cars with pan controlled externally. Whenever there's a crash involving a car equipped with one of these cameras, it is replayed. Sometimes the video transmission is interrupted at the moment of impact, which can make the viewer "feel" the crash. I viewed a couple of these clips and get more or less the same sensation.

[octothorpe]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

If the camera had a wider angle (even "fisheye") lens, you could have a better view of other robots approaching or more of the field, crowd, ...

True. It became apparent when watching all the videos after competition season (and often struggling to keep track of where the other robots were) that a wider angle would be nice. Of course, the ideal would just be to have multiple cameras on the robot, say three or four. You could even mount each one on its own motorized assembly to get the external pan...

[fieldd]

Our team did something similar to this. Only the video is a lot worse quality. Still though, it looks pretty awesome when we ram someone.