Two cameras: Pros and Cons

Technical Programming
1

Well, I’ve searched the forums, and the only mention of two cameras that I can find is this thread from last year, http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33037&highlight=two+cameras

We’re seriously considering using two cameras this year, and I’d like to see a discussion on the pros and cons of the setup.

The basic idea is laid out in this post from the thread above, http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=322427&postcount=14.

This year is much simpler than last year, due to the single, illuminated target in known locations at the ends of the field, so I don’t think Dave Lavery will be handing out six dozen doughnuts this year, http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=322367&postcount=9

So here are my thoughts to get the discussion started:

Pros:)

  • Quicker acquisition: Two cameras can cover a wider field of view than one, and as soon as one has acquired the target, the launcher can start moving into position while the second camera finds it.
  • Simple aiming: Just move the launcher until the pan angles on the two camera mounts are congruent!
  • Simple and robust ranging: The pan angles of the camera mounts give the range using a lookup table. Additionally, the tilt angles of each mount give two independent range values (also lookup tables) that can be checked against the pan angle result.
  • Redundancy: If one goes out, you’ve still got one to work with (granted you’ll have to have some code to make this work)
  • Coolness: A robot with color, binocular vision! :cool:
  • Practice: Once you’ve got one camera working, the second is that much easier

Cons:eek:

  • More stuff to break (hardware AND software)
  • More code to write
  • Use of the program port: The second camera can’t be also plugged into the TTL port (of course, it doesn’t need an RS-232 to TTL adapter, either), so that means you need to unplug a camera to update the software, which adds risk to pit operations (what if you forget to plug the camera back in!?!). I guess you can make some kind of Y-cable, but you’ll have to be careful not to mess up the camera while the RC is hooked up to the computer for the download.

Well, I think that’s enough to get started, I’m interested in hearing what everyone has to say!:smiley:

2

My team has two camera’s as well. The one from 2005, and this years camera, I am currently trying to convince my team that it would be a good idea to make two camera’s work, and make the pan/tilt brackets so that we can get two camera’s working.

This time we would like to do it so that one camera can be tracking the green, and the other will be looking for the harder to find red or blue rings/bottom goals so that we know what side is ours, without having to rig it up somehow that we don’t start shooting in the wrong goal by accident.

As for getting two camera’s working, it would be interesting, I am currently working on modifications of Kevin’s code that would make it possible, but so far it is not getting to far, as my team keeps demanding other things of me that I need to get done before that!