Driver Station 2010 - Netbook?

[Dave Flowerday]

I think a hybrid approach would be great. Base it around a COTS netbook so we can take advantage of the high-volume production to get a product that costs basically the same as a DS with a much better screen, built-in battery (which would be *perfect* for pit testing/demos/in-queue use), WiFi (no reason we couldn't go direct from Netbook to Robot for at-home testing and skip the Access Point in the KOP).

Add to the netbook a custom USB device that would include some digital and analog inputs for custom controls, a few real LEDs for feeback (they're easier for field crews to see than the LCD screen), E-Stop, and an Auto/Driver switch.

As for Alan's concern about safety on the field, a USB-connected E-Stop isn't any less safe than the DS today. Today's DS still relies on reading the switch input and adjusting its network packets correctly. To further enhance safety, however, I'd have an E-Stop connected to the field hardware cabinet (not to the netbook) at competitions, and require the robot to receive a "you're enabled" packet from FMS to keep going. If FMS stops sending the "You're enabled" packets, the robot shuts down, regardless of what the DS is doing.

Additionally, to address concerns about teams changing the DS code (which was entirely possible this year, BTW): it isn't that hard to give teams a standard firmware image that they must boot from (if everyone uses the same netbook), and do some code signing and authentication to confirm to the FMS that the netbook's code is what was shipped.