Laptops: Will You Guys Use Them On The Robot?

[RyanN]

Well... as I think about it... the laptop is modular. You can separate the RAM, battery, and SSD. Still... you're going to be stuck with a fairly low end laptop. If I were to even consider this, I would attempt to make a PC from scratch with a mini-ITX board or something. Still, I don't see the big advantage.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by RyanN

Well... as I think about it... the laptop is modular. You can separate the RAM, battery, and SSD. Still... you're going to be stuck with a fairly low end laptop. If I were to even consider this, I would attempt to make a PC from scratch with a mini-ITX board or something. Still, I don't see the big advantage.

Exactly my thought sir, but desktop computers run off of AC power. Is the robot able to produce 110v AC? If it is, I am dropping the computer Idea and going straight into PS3(s). They are cheap, $250 for the refurbished ones. 6 SPUs available to the developer and homebrew broke into the scene. If the budget allows, we can use 2 or more as a distributed memory system. But that would take lots of weight to do. I am dreaming big here.

[gblake]

Folks - Don't forget to take 15 minutes to look into using a Gumstix computer if your goal is more number-crunching.

[Tom Line]

If you are trying to create a robot that works well, and that is all you're trying to do, offboard image processing (offboard the crio) is un-needed for most tasks.

Vision processing works phenominally well with high contrast differences, or with self-lit objects. Thus the white on black rings last year, the 2007 lights etc. The pink over green of lunacy were problematic much of the time due to lighting. The colors of the tubes and changing shape depending on viewing angle even more so.

I love the idea of a robot that utilizes high amounts of vision process to automate tasks. However, I believe you will struggle to consistently track game peices, etc over the varying lighting levels seen on FIRST fields.

Last year you could adjust the robot to see the targets from close to 30 feet away at a framerate more than high enough to aim and shoot balls. You only need ONE FRAME to calculate your angle and distance to target, then use the gyro to turn and fire the ball. Your target wasn't moving.

That is much removed from Lunacy where you needed at least several images and a timestamp to calculate the relative motion of the trailer to your robot and calculate some rather simple leading-angles and distances.

Likewise, this year, the rack is not moving. You need only 1 image to calculate your position and distance and get the angles you need to drive. The crio is more than powerful enough to do that.

[drakesword]

Here's an idea ...

Kinect?

[mwtidd]

Originally Posted by drakesword

Here's an idea ...

Kinect?

already been discussed... uses lasers => illegal

[winglerw28]

I would really only want to put a desktop onto it, but even then the benefits are far outweighed by the inconvenience. Firstly, you would need a powerful battery to power a desktop. Laptops are too integrated to mess with and take apart AND put onto a robot.

I like the CRIO. It's a nice system, as buggy as our old one may be.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by winglerw28

I would really only want to put a desktop onto it, but even then the benefits are far outweighed by the inconvenience. Firstly, you would need a powerful battery to power a desktop. Laptops are too integrated to mess with and take apart AND put onto a robot.

I like the CRIO. It's a nice system, as buggy as our old one may be.

You just need to convert the DC to AC; the 12v DC would convert to 110v AC.


Oh it seems like we are not doing autonomous this year. It seems that we lack the funds. It is the first time we would go to 2 regionals for the first time this year and we already invested too much money for that. There will be less money for the actual robot this year. Lets just hope my idea gets implemented, I do not like conformity.

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

You just need to convert the DC to AC; the 12v DC would convert to 110v AC.

It seems like it would be much more reasonable to not go to AC at all. You just need a DC-DC ATX power supply. There are plenty here. We did this on our robot last year. It was harder last year, though since we had to swap out cooling fans for kit-of-parts fans and had to run with no CMOS backup battery.

-Joe

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Oh it seems like we are not doing autonomous this year. It seems that we lack the funds.

I don't understand. Autonomous mode is just a matter of programming. You spend time on it, not money, and everyone has the same amount of time.

[gvarndell]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Autonomous mode is just a matter of programming. You spend time on it, not money...

Well, if you're convinced you can't do autonomous unless you bolt a desktop computer to your robot, then you might think otherwise.