Sonar Sensors legal

[EricH]

COTS: Commercial Off-The-Shelf.

Full and complete Manual definition (Section 8.2):

COTS – A “Commercial, Off-The-Shelf” COMPONENT or MECHANISM, in its unaltered, unmodified state. A COTS item must be a standard (i.e. not custom order) part commonly available from the VENDOR, available from a non-team source, and available to all teams for purchase.
• Example 1: a team orders two robot grippers from RoboHands Corp. and receives both items. They put one in their storeroom and plan to use it later. Into the other, they drill “lightening holes” to reduce weight. The first gripper is still classified as a COTS item, but the second gripper is now a “custom part” as it has been modified.
• Example 2: a team obtains openly available blueprints of a drive component commonly available from Wheels-R-Us Inc. and has local machine shop “We-Make-It, Inc.” manufacture a copy of the part for them. The produced part is NOT a COTS item, because it is not commonly carried as part of the standard stock of We-Make-It, Inc.
• Example 3: a team obtains openly available design drawings from a professional publication during the pre-season, and uses them to fabricate a gearbox for their ROBOT during the build period following kick-off. The design drawings would be considered a COTS item, and may be used as “raw material” to fabricate the gearbox. The finished gearbox itself would be a FABRICATED ITEM, and not a COTS item.

As for using mulitiple IR sensors without interference, it is possible. Back in 2004, there was an IR beacon on each side of the field. My team mounted 4 IR receivers in tubes that were wrapped in aluminum foil, cut the other ends at angles, and mounted the receivers in pairs on servos, with the angles facing away from each other in each pair. I don't know of any problems other than weight; they and their mounts didn't make it onto the final robot. (It was a pound or two all told; we had not that much available.)

I wouldn't be surprised if a sender/receiver IR unit could be configured in the same way, if needed.