They are a comin’.
This multi-segment drone was presented last May at the ICRA 2018 conference in Australia…
IMHO, it’s only a matter of time that we see them appear on a FRC playing field, first as adjunct robots, perhaps.
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I doubt we see them anytime soon. The safety features (disabled/e-stop) would need built into the system and they’re likely too dangerous for an FRC venue.
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It’s been done. You might want to take a look at CARD, FIRST’s attempt at a Collegiate program, which was structured around drones.
IMO, you run into a lot of logistics, structural and safety issues with Drones. For one, they would use an entirely different control system (the current one is too heavy), it would be hard to give them enough space while keeping them contained (for safety), and on top of that, there are so many drone kits available you would end up with a lot of people opting for basically 100% off-the-shelf solutions.
There are already drone competitions out there, let FIRST be FIRST.
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I am guessing the usage contract at most venues outright ban the flying of drones inside the venue.
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I think there was a chance a while ago while drones were the new hot **** that FIRST would shoehorn a commercial drone (like a Parrot A.R drone) into the game like they did with the Kinect in 2012. Now that they hype is wearing thin and Chinese companies dominate the space, the chances are pretty slim.
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Probably within a year or two of the water game.
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To be fair, He was asking about FRC competitions. :] The pilot wasn’t that successful anyway as I recall.
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Agreed.
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We will are flying robots in the FRC right after we decide if it’s a sammich.
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Big drone advocate here, and I have a few opinions about the usage of drones in FRC:
Firstly, doing so would require safety netting the entire field, making it much more difficult to access, ref through, and result in a poor spectator experience.
Second, FRC still has not become comfortable with usage of LiPo / Lithium Ion battery technology yet, and for good reason – they do catch on fire and are difficult to contain, are unusable with punctured, are dangerous to recharge, and internal damage is difficult to spot. Drones will not have enough thrust in the field’s useful dimensions while also lifting lead-acid batteries, so a new battery technology will have to be introduced first.
Third, having six drones in that field area would be unbearably tight, and crashes will be common, leading to significant field debris, resulting in robot damage and extra cleanup time (and in the hour or less between matches, you likely won’t have enough time to fix crash damage)
I conclude we will not see drones in FRC anytime soon – at least until new battery tech is invented. Maybe in 20 years I’ll re-evaluate this opinion.
Note: “aerial” robots tethered to the primary robot to provide power and data may be feasible, although I argue that’s technically allowed now (think of it as an active protrusion).
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The drone world is in constant evolution. This year, the Ryze/DJI Tello appeared on the market. It is a small, very maneuverable 80 grams drone. One of its main features is that it comes with a remote control SDK. This SDK was used to create the DroneBlocks app.
Shortly after the appearance of the Tello, Parrot responded with the Mambo. I can think a number of additional entries will appear in the market in the next year, including some kits.
Looking at the Tello work (I have one, by the way, I’ve been flying lately), I can see how such a drone could be connected to its primary robot and the FMS through the OM Radio. The video stream could be captured and routed to the Driver Station to perform visual recognition or identification tasks as part of a FRC challenge.
I think we are getting close enough that GDC will start considering the idea in a not-so-distant FRC competition.
I believe we will se drones in a FRC mission before we see a water mission… 
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The Drone Racing League (DRL) runs entirely in indoor venues.
A high-school drone building team I mentor recently held an event that spanned an entire day completely inside an indoor soccerplex. Yes, protective measures must be taken… Safety does Matter… but those measures are now being understood better. The event consisted of FPV races; drone demonstrations and utility mission competitions on three smaller flight venues created with the soccerplex field dividers.
To think that many thought the day of auto run could never come because of the complexity of programming…
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The difference being you’d also need netting over the top of the field.
However the netting in 2013 wasn’t super restrictive so it could probably be done.
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I wrote that because when I was looking at the MSHSL broadcast regulations it had a specific “no drone” paragraph. I did google the usage contracts of the local FRC venues and found boilerplate copies on line after posting. They actually didn’t ban drones. While googling that I did notice the FAA doesn’t have jurisdiction over inside of buildings. So actually there is less rules when inside.
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Think tethered drone = minibot.
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We saw a few in 2016.
Admittedly they flew like most cars do: Not well.
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Prior to 2006 we thought First would never allow us to throw objects to score.
Since then you could do so in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
So unless venue size for field space or venue restrictions are the reason we will probably see it when the motor and battery power to weight makes it practical.
Also as a member of the only team to cause a battery fire on Einstein (2011 mini bot) I do believe the dangers of lithium ion batteries in competition robotics are real.
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