NEW 2009 Control System Released

[AustinSchuh]

I'm really excited about the FPGA too. Finally, we will be able to have our encoders produce way too many interrupts per second, and not have to worry about bogging down the controller because the FPGA can handle most anything we can throw at it. Not to mention 400 Mhz with a FPU.

[Nightfall831]

Originally Posted by whytheheckme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkft479ARTk

OH MY GOD! THIS IS MY DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!!!1111oneone lim(sin(x)/x) x->0

I can die in peace now!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

JACOB!!!!~~!~!!

so i totally took the time to check that limit...i hope im not the only one...

[sparrowkc]

So I happen to have the sticker in nightfall's sig on my right palm rest, and I was wondering if I will be able to program with my Ubuntu machine. The Windriver website says the software runs on redhat, but Ubuntu is on a different package system than redhat. I don't know if alien would convert it or if there is copy protection on it or what...

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Spider-Man

The PWM connectors require the exact same cabling as before. They just have the added benefit of friction-based locking. Also, notice that there are lots of vast lengths of space in between the connectors.

Thanks for clarifying. It looked like an entirely different connector to me.

[coolfilmaker]

I'm just excited to see how they are going to fit a Hummer and an eight story building on the 27' x 54' field.

[tseres]

now we can all start drooling over the game possibilities for next year

[comphappy]

Originally Posted by sparrowkc

So I happen to have the sticker in nightfall's sig on my right palm rest, and I was wondering if I will be able to program with my Ubuntu machine. The Windriver website says the software runs on redhat, but Ubuntu is on a different package system than redhat. I don't know if alien would convert it or if there is copy protection on it or what...

I am 90% sure that it is a bin package, so no problem there long as your libs are up to date.

[Eldarion]

Does anyone know anything more about the vision processing?

Framerate?
Resolution?
Color or black-and-white?
Color based tracking or higher level (geon-based, SIFT, etc)?
Does it use the FPGA?

[Stuart]

. . umm WOW . . just WOW . . crazy.

Love the power of this thing. love the new power distro block . .and it looks to me like the OI will be my new best friend.

but I have a few questions #1 will it be that big come next year( cause it is HUGE compared to what we have now and we already have a hard time placing things where they need to go). #2 do I have to use all those blocks as shown or just what we want to use. #3 I know it can take a 50G shock but is it water proof? and #4 when can I get my hands on one of these?

ohh and 5 gold stars to the first team that uses the 802.11 and implements a web server on their robot . . 10 gold stars if they make it a CVS server and use it to program it with.

[comphappy]

Originally Posted by Stuart

. . umm WOW . . just WOW . . crazy.

Love the power of this thing. love the new power distro block . .and it looks to me like the OI will be my new best friend.

but I have a few questions #1 will it be that big come next year( cause it is HUGE compared to what we have now and we already have a hard time placing things where they need to go). #2 do I have to use all those blocks as shown or just what we want to use. #3 I know it can take a 50G shock but is it water proof? and #4 when can I get my hands on one of these?

ohh and 5 gold stars to the first team that uses the 802.11 and implements a web server on their robot . . 10 gold stars if they make it a CVS server and use it to program it with.

Yeah I was thinking we could just program it to do its own scouting.

[NCollins]

OK, after numerous calculations here is the data for 802.11 channel interference. Although it is true that only 1,6,and 11 have no crosstalk AT ALL does not mean that there are only three channels with low enough interference to work.

Cisco tested a 4 channel system using 1,4,8, and 11. In their test they found an only 1% interference overlap. With such little crossover they only found problems when using a large amount of the bandwidth at one time.

Using similar calculation I extrapolated the crosstalk with the system I described above (1,3,5,7,9,11). I found a crosstalk interference of only 5.47% outside 802.11 guidelines. Also at a distance of only 12.45 inches there is a drop in power enough to lessen the crosstalk below guidelines as well.

We also need to remember that the robots this year are only running at 19.2 Kbps. 802.11 provides up to 11000Kbps.

The guidelines for 802.11 require a 30dB drop for no interference.

[seanl]

Originally Posted by comphappy

Yeah I was thinking we could just program it to do its own scouting.

maybe we could even program the vision system go look around and scout. now thats what i call an automated robot.

[Andy L]

So far the only thing that I don't like is the fact that the PDBs, and everything is in one piece. Our electronics board was forced to fit into a very thin width and we probably couldn't have done it. Only a minor inconvenience because a few minor changes could've made work. The USB Joysticks will be good for us along with connecting to a laptop easily and my favorite is we can finally trash our programming laptop because we don't need the serial port anymore.

This new system will be amazing even though it will take a little while to learn it evens the field for new teams. I think our team will assign 2-3 people to just learn everything and relay most of it to the rest of the team. Easier said than done though because our entire team is going to jump on that.

[fatjoe3833]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5BRU1iqGpI

The real time mapping technology shown in this video looks very cool. Imagine a future game in which drivers could not see the field for all or part of each match. Kind of like the DARPA Grand Challenge. Maybe the guy in the video is giving us a hint.

I also like the use of the Wiimote. I can't wait to see what kinds of controllers teams use next year.

[Branden Ghena]

I have 4 comments...

1)

Originally Posted by Andy L

Also don't just think of the US there are teams in Israel, Puerto Rico, Chile, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, and hopefully more next year.

I think you forgot Canada and Mexico

2)

Originally Posted by Nightfall831

so i totally took the time to check that limit...i hope im not the only one...

lim x-> 0 (sin(x)/x) = 1

Actually, I just learned this today in AP Calc class! Surprising how things come up.

3) Did you notice that the NI FIRST Community site came up yesterday at 5PM? I actually Googled "2009 FIRST Control System" yesterday at 10 PM and it came up. I basked in my newfound knowledge, but decided not to post and steal FIRST's thunder. I guess it didn't matter, someone else found out in the middle of the night.

4)Did anyone notice that one of the abilities of the cRio was inter-robot communication. FINALLY! This could make for some VERY interesting challenges the next couple of years.