Driver Station Cameras (Q&A #7)

Technical Technical Discussion
1

After my team discussed this and I posted here. I figured I should ask the Q&A if extending a pole up from the driver station and having a bird’s eye view of the field would be legal. To my surprise, they said yes it is legal.

Q&A #7 Operator Console](https://frc-qa.usfirst.org/Question/7/the-operator-console-doesnt-have-a-max-height-in-the-rules-can-teams-extend-their-console-above-the-driver-station-glass-this-would-mostly-be-for-mounting-a-camera-for-an-over-head-view-of-the-fiel)

This opens the doors for not only overhead views of the field for the driver but also for some amazing autonomous vision possibilities.

2

Cue the periscope?
So how are we going to word this until we can get the gdc to allow us a tethered quad copter with a live video feed?

3

Adding onto this: does anyone know if it is legal to mount a camera on the catwalk of a venue, process the image on a computer, then communicate via bluetooth to another computer, say a pi, on the robot or driver station?

By the rules: T4 Teams may not set up their own 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz or 5GHz) wireless communication (e.g. access points or ad-hoc
networks) in the venue.

bluetooth is 802.15.1 by IEEE standards.

4

That is illegal make sure to read the entire manual.

R84 Other than the system provided by the ARENA, no other form of wireless communications shall be used to communicate to, from, or within the OPERATOR CONSOLE.

5

Operator console is defined as what is behind the glass, yes? So you could communicate with a pi on your robot still, correct?

6

Sorry but no, again read the entire manual.

R52 No form of wireless communication shall be used to communicate to, from, or within the ROBOT, except those required per R46 and R51 (e.g. radio modems from previous FIRST competitions and Bluetooth devices are not permitted on the ROBOT
during competition).

7

Well that’s upsetting. Thank you for rule checking me

8

This is great! I’m waiting for the team that will make a Mario Kart mini map display!

9

Thanks for asking this! Really opens up some interesting possibilities.

Is Q&A generally flooded with questions that have already been answered earlier on? It’s kind of annoying to have pages of the same question that were answered on the first page.

10

It is the kind of system where you want to get in early so you don’t have to dig through it all at once.

11

Whelp, looks like I know what my in-between-build-season-and-first-event project is.

12

But, did the GDC say it is Legal to use that camera video and feed it to the robot as a some sort of usable information?

13

I think the OP is saying that the video would go to the drive station so they can see their robot behind a stack of totes.

14

To quote the GDC, “There are no rules that prohibit this.” I see no difference between this and the cheesy-vision that 254 used last year. All feed info to the robot originating with video.

15

Except, I believe, cheesy-vision type systems are not allowed this year due to G21.

I see no problem with having the camera pointed on the field.

16

I don’t agree with that statement. cheesy-vision gave the robot information for autonomous, which goal is hot. This simply, potentially, gives the drivers a better look at the field. I could see this being used for some interesting autonomous routines, but I don’t think that will happen.