**FIRST EMAIL**/Camera Calibration on Practice Day/Team Update #19

FIRST General Forum
1

Greetings Teams:

FIRST has received reports that some teams are experiencing difficulty with autonomous operation on the competition playing field. This may be a result of ambient differences between the practice field and the playing field.

FIRST has added two files to our web site for teams’ reference. For teams who wish to compare their camera calibration numbers to the FIRST recommended numbers (which are tested at each event), we have posted the “2007 Vision Target.cfg” on our website at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=4056. FIRST has also posted the default configuration file for the camera on the same page.

Additionally, we are implementing the following protocol starting at all Week 4 Regionals and continuing for the remainder of the season. On the practice day for each competition event (typically Thursday), the competition field will be available for teams to calibrate their camera systems under competition lighting conditions.

[LIST]

  • The competition field will be open for one hour after the conclusion of practice matches
    and any necessary field cleaning, reset, repair and/or testing. Competition lighting conditions will be maintained during this time. - During this period, use of the field is reserved for ONLY those robots using onboard camera systems, and ONLY for the purpose of calibrating the cameras.
  • All robots placed on the field must be tethered and powered by on-board batteries; no field power will be provided.
  • Teams may bring any calibration, programming, or diagnostic equipment necessary to the field to calibrate their cameras.
  • Robots must remain immobile during this period and must not interact with the Rack, Game Pieces, other field elements, or other robots (i.e., pull the drive motor fuses while calibrating!)
    [/LIST]Robots may not run their full autonomous routines - this period is for camera calibration only, not for testing of software or other robot capabilities.

We hope this aids teams in their quest to score Keepers. As always, we encourage teams to share discoveries they have made during this calibration period with all other teams.

Go Teams!

2

This is a good idea. Too bad that they didn’t allow for this at earlier competitions.

Jacob

3

I applaud FIRST finally getting around to doing this. I could’ve sworn this suggestion came up numerous times last season as well, but I’m glad they’re finally giving teams this opportunity

4

I’m really happy to hear this. My team has had a lot of difficulty calibrating the camera this year and I know that this will help a lot.

5

This is an excellent idea, it is just a bit late though. As for my team we decided to ditch the camera in NJ after we could not find the light (the camera was also inplugged prior to the ship of the robot so it may have been damaged)

So I’m assuming that if we input these values into our camera code then we will be more sucessful with finding it?

-Dustin