Classmate Latency and Live Video

[slavik262]

Our team ran a mini-regional today in Sussex, WI, complete with FMS and the works. While monitoring the latency between the FMS and the robots, we found that those streaming video to dashboards running on the Classmate had latency times from 120 to 200 ms, while those not streaming video to the Classmate enjoyed latency times around 30ms.

While I realize the numbers may be different in an actual competition, the moral of the story seems that without modifying the dashboard to lessen load on the Classmate's CPU or running the dashboard on another laptop as has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, running video live to your robot has a significant cost in latency. Keep in mind that this latency was from the Classmate back to the robot as well as from the robot to the Classmate, so teams running video on the Classmate must decide whether it is worth somewhat of a lag in robot control.