Anyone use one of these in competition? Is this legal?
What rules have you found that relate to it and how?
It may be worthwhile to call their customer service number to confirm they will work for your application before you spend your money.
I use it for work. Gave one to the team over the summer and they have already tested it with a RIO. We connected it directly to a DI and read it as a quadrature signal. It works fairly well.
I don’t have any specific rule in mind. I know there is a class 1 laser rule. I believe this uses a class 1 laser but I will need to confirm that. Other than that, I don’t see why it would be illegal.
It’s been out for about a year and I expected all sorts of high end teams to have used it last year except there was no Auton. Just wondering if anyone else has experimented with this sensor yet.
There is one rule that may be broken, depending on how it is interpreted.
Which rule is that?
I can tell you why teams don’t use it, aside from not knowing about it.
That top speed is about 1/3 the speed of this year’s stock Kit of Parts drivetrain. Many teams aim for faster than that even. 1.1 m/s = 3.3 ft/s.
As an engineering decision, you’re paying near maximum component price for something that will have utility for between 15 and 30 seconds of the match, TOTAL, when you can do the same thing with an encoder and an IMU. (That would be automode and possibly endgame.) Depending on ranging distance, could be even less of the match, or could end as soon as you go over a bump (or get hit).
Legal? Probably, depending on laser rules and whatever @philso has in mind. Legal != Practical.
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Notwithstanding Eric’s comment above, you’re under the price limit, should be able to connect to it within the power and sensor rules, and about the only thing that I can see is a problem is the laser.
After flipping through the datasheet I don’t see anything specifying that it is a Class 1 laser… and it is up to the team to demonstrate that it IS safe. So make sure that you’ve got evidence that the laser is Class 1.
I do note, however, that the laser is intended for glossy surfaces, while an LED light source is included for diffuse surfaces (such as carpet). If you can cover the laser emitter so that it is not “exposed” then it may be legal even if you cannot demonstrate that it is “Class 1”.
Note that I say “may”… but so long as you are R8.d (the laser rule) compliant, nothing else is ringing alarm bells for me.
Jason
If the top speed wasn’t so low, I’d actually really like it for mecanum bots despite the price.
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FYI, got this from Roboteq. Posting it here as evidence that the laser is class 1 if any other teams are thinking about using this sensor:
Dear Elmer,
Thank you for your email. I’m Athanasios field application engineer from Roboteq Greece.
In the FLW100 roboteq uses class 1 laser.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Best regards
Athanasios Baxevanos
Field Application Engineer
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