Driver Station - Camera Feedback

[sranton]

Does anyone know if we are allowed to display images from the camera on a laptop at the driver station during competition? The reason I ask is because there seems to be conflicting information in the FRC Manual and the FRC Programming Guide.

The FRC Manual states in 8.3.10 Operator Console:

<R81> Teams are permitted to connect a portable computing device (Laptop computer, PDAs, etc.) to either of the Ethernet ports on the Driver Station for the purpose of displaying feedback from the ROBOT while participating in competition MATCHES. Portable computing devices may only connect to the Driver Station through one of the Ethernet ports – they shall not connect to the Driver Station through any other port. Portable computing devices may only connect to the Driver Station – they must not directly connect to any ARENA ports or equipment. Please note that AC power will not be available at the playing field so these devices will have to run on internal batteries.

The FRC Programming Guide states on page "4-8" (page 39 of the PDF):

Note: You can send image data to the host computer only during development, not during the FRC Competition.

Rule <R81> says Laptops can be used to "display feedback from the Robot while participating in competition Matches," which doesn't say that any particular information is not allowed to be displayed. This seems like camera feedback is OK.

Perhaps this is a wireless bandwidth issue. Maybe FIRST doesn't want us to use up bandwidth during competition.

Any thoughts?

[Michael_MARS]

I think you are right, but some clarification from FIRST would be nice.

[Dominicano0519]

yeah but until then i would with the manual it is much beter revised and inspected than the programing manual

[Freeztech]

I found this tread which posses the same problem/Idea. so I thought I might throw it up here so you might get an idea on it.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...driver+station

so I hope it helps out

[sranton]

Originally Posted by Freeztech

I found this tread which posses the same problem/Idea. so I thought I might throw it up here so you might get an idea on it.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...driver+station

so I hope it helps out

Thanks for the heads up, that is exactly what I am wondering. It seems someone posted in the Q&A Forum and the response is that it is technically legal, however, there may be bandwidth limitations that cause camera feedback to be impractical:

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread...3562#post23562

They remain vague on whether or not they are going to purposefully limit bandwidth as to make the camera useless, or if bandwidth might just be a bit slower on the playing field than when testing in your shop.