Reflective Tape on Robot

[mbshark]

Can you have reflective tape on your robot for catching purposes?

[ksafin]

In past years that hasn't been allowed, and since I don't see any explicit exception I would think not.

[mbshark]

I haven't seen a rule preventing it.

[GaryVoshol]

Beware the Blue Box on R8:

C. Any devices or decorations specifically intended to jam or interfere with the remote
sensing capabilities of another ROBOT, including vision systems, acoustic range finders,
sonars, infrared proximity detectors, etc. (e.g. including imagery on your ROBOT that, to
a reasonably astute observer, mimics the VISION TARGET)

[DavisC]

Hmmm, R8 is only about the Robot.

I know this is not in the spirit of Gracious Professionalism and the Refs would probably ask you to stop then Yellow/Red card you if you don't (I.e. rookie robot for rebound rumble just had a giant net that blocked most shots), and it probably should be addressed in the manual.

But I never noticed anything about not having Retro Reflective tape on the driver station...

Out of curiosity, how would reflective tape help with catching?

- I mean, I do guess it would be possible to have a camera pointed at retro reflective tape around your catching mechanism to see if placement of the ball is right...

[yash101]

Please don't. It has a very high chance of screwing with other teams' autotargeting systems that depend on the tape. What would the purpose of this be? If it is just for looks, just screw it because that isn't cool, when it can mess up the other robots. If you are using it to detect a position of a part, just use encoders, limit switches or even ultrasonic rangefinders!

[fb39ca4]

The vast majority of teams you will have on your alliance will not have their robots programmed to autonomously throw balls to you to catch.

[yash101]

Originally Posted by fb39ca4

The vast majority of teams you will have on your alliance will not have their robots programmed to autonomously throw balls to you to catch.

Yes, that is completely true. It isn't the easiest thing to do to write an entire tracking algorithm to allow teams to shoot into your catcher. That is just impractical.

I think it would cause more problems than it would solve because it would ruin the tracking system of other robots. I guess that it could be useful to have it as a goalie robot, with the ability to fool other robots

However, that is dumb and doesn't show GP, so just skip that!

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by fb39ca4

The vast majority of teams you will have on your alliance will not have their robots programmed to autonomously throw balls to you to catch.

The vast majority of robots that play Aerial Assist will not take advantage of the retro-reflective on the goals for targeting purposes.
However, thinking forward to Championship, if there is a standardized target (not necessarily retro-reflective tape, but in a standard color, made out of standardized materials/tapes and to a standard shape), quite a few top teams will be able to take advantage of it. Even so, having some sort of target on where you want the other team to throw it might help just lining up with the target by making it easier to see. Also, if your catching robot has something of a backboard, it further stresses that the idea is that you hit the backboard and not try to swish it into your mechanism directly, sort of like the square on a backboard in basketball.

[Bill_B]

I was thinking more about a common agreement for alliance partner recognition to be applied via retro reflective tape in some pattern on each robot of an alliance. For instance, vision recognition of a triangle might be used to avoid passing to an opponent. Also could signal that the alliance partner is correctly oriented to receive a pass to even a non-automatic recognition system.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

I was thinking more about a common agreement for alliance partner recognition to be applied via retro reflective tape in some pattern on each robot of an alliance. For instance, vision recognition of a triangle might be used to avoid passing to an opponent. Also could signal that the alliance partner is correctly oriented to receive a pass to even a non-automatic recognition system.

Well, for signaling correct orientation, I think green L.E.D.s in the area of your catching mechanism would be the way to go. They would also be handy to have on your ground-pass intake.

[DavisC]

I'm sure a standard design could be made (I've barely done vision tracking but I imagine something like 1 of these triangles would work).