Lessons Learned - The Negative

[Greg McKaskle]

I'm going to echo this.
If FIRST is going to provide teams with an expensive piece of technology and even more expensive controls designed to work with it, they should ensure that said technology should be not only possible, but plausible to work with at each and every event/venue.

The lighting was indeed challenging, but I don't think the clouds were that much of an issue. I was measuring the light level at various times during the day on Saturday. The light level measured at the front of the stands stayed within a factor of two of the spec level. I wasn't able to check on other days, where it may have had more impact. On the other hand, when the timeout was called on Einstein, the disco lights started going full tilt. Good thing teams weren't trying to calibrate their camera during their timeout.

I can't directly compare to previous years that used the camera, but levels were checked at the majority of the regional events, and only needed adjustments a few times to bring them into spec. That doesn't mean it was ideal, however. The dark curtain, the lack of conistency in the lighting in the background, and the spotlight positioning made it difficult for the camera to meter the light and get a good exposure. With the data and experience gained, I think the camera will be better utilized in coming years. Additionally, having a moving target being shot at from a moving platform with a slow projectile is more than just a vision problem. Personally I think the lead estimation and the lack of scoring benefit was the primary reason for the camera being underutilized.

While discussing the event lighting, I'll also mention that few teams took advantage of the lunch hour for measuring the field or calibrating the camera. At the three regionals where I assisted with this, three or four teams gave it a shot. In Atlanta, the red seats and pink target were close to each other in color, but they could be differentiated with a small change to the hue threshold. I don't know how many people asked the NI AIs, but only two teams asked me for help with vision. The vision sessions I presented were also not well attended. IMO, inconsistent lighting isn't the only issue.

Greg McKaskle