It is illegal to bring a practice robot to a regional competition.
Let’s take advantage of this phenomenon!
Mic->Rasberry Pi->Pirate Radio on a US FM band (Repeat for each person)
People only need an FM radio to tune in- Outreach! Just leave a station near the doors outside and set the RasPi FM band to NPR or something- nothing can go wrong!
(Bonus: I’m pretty sure it even violates FCC rules, so you can can get the opportunity to enlighten lots of important people about FIRST)
On the topic of pigeons, I have yet to find any rule banning them from use on a FRC robot.
I am still waiting for this concept to be transferred to robots. A pigeon can identify a red ball, right? that is all you need (well, a blue ball pecking pigeon as well)
If you see a team using radios to communicate, go to the Regional Director or Event Coordinator (In Districts, there is no RD to speak of, but there are local event leads). It is (as has been outlined already) against the “At the Event” rules (Section 4 of the manual) and it’s on the event to speak to the team and inform them of said rule violation.
R34 disallows pigeons on the ROBOT, as it a non-electrical source of energy that is not one of the 3 allowed (compressed air, change in CoG, deformation of robot parts).
Also, I’d like to (and I think Big Al would like to as well) meet an inspector who thinks a pigeon is safe under R8.
I was thinking it was more likely to come under the “contaminating the field” rules. In Chicago there is a local ordinace to prevent feeding the pigeons.
They don’t operate on even remotely the same frequency. There would be little to no interference between the WiFi that the robots use (I believe they operate on the 5Ghz channel) and the frequency that any cell phone would use over its cellular connection that can range anywhere from 700-800Mhz, to as high as 1700Mhz or even 2100Mhz - all depending on your carrier.
This if of course, assuming proper shielding was used in the cell phones and hotspots to reduce RF leakage.
Sorry, Solid, That is not the way interference works. The third harmonic of 1700 MHz is right in the band. All it needs is a non-linear mixer and voila, interference. Loose aluminum hardware makes a great non-linear mixer. High power RF mixing in the input to a receiver can also produce the same effect. 800 + 2*2100 also comes out on a frequency that can interfere.
nods
Good to know.
but you can have an additional power source if it is a component of something (like a laptop), and since the pigeons energy is stored inside it, it would be legal.
You do know the rule about disabling wireless communications on the laptop? Most pigeons perform better wireless.
This introduces a whole new set of questions that aren’t addressed in the Game Manual: Doesn’t this require that all pigeons “arrive having eaten”? How will inspectors be verifying this condition, as most pigeons won’t give you an honest answer even when asked a direct question. Is it considered an unfair advantage to keep pigeons in the team trailer, or must they be included in the 45lb withholding allowance and brought in at the start of the event (they are for all intents and purposes a COTS item after all). I’m pretty sure a modified pigeon would be considered a safety hazard in the same sense that pneumatic components cannot be modified (but obviously we’d need an official Q&A ruling to be certain). If a team bagged their pigeon(s), can they then be fed once the inspector signs off on their lock up form? And on a related thought, how are non-functional pigeons to be disposed of safely at the event?