battery for onboard computer processing

Technical Technical Discussion
1

Can we use a battery independent of the power distribution board to power our on-board processing computer?

2

That’s R34.
The battery must be part of a COTS computing device, so you can’t just cobble something together.

R34

The only legal source of electrical energy for the ROBOT during the competition, the ROBOT battery, is one of the following 12VDC non-spillable lead acid batteries:

A. MK Battery (P/N: ES17-12) or
B. EnerSys (P/N: NP 18-12)

Exception: Batteries integral to and part of a COTS computing device or self-contained camera are also permitted (e.g. laptop batteries), provided they’re only used to power the COTS computing device and any peripheral COTS USB input devices connected to the COTS computing device and they must be securely fastened to the ROBOT.

3

Thanks for the reply. We are thinking of using the laptop which falls under the exceptions, correct?

4

Yea, it’s intended to allow an off-the-shelf laptop with it’s integral batteries on the robot.