Would it be legal for a team to use the light from LEDs below a robot chassis to assist a vision sensor in differentiating game piece colors? The same effect could probably be accomplished with the vex Flashlight. I am fairly certain it would be illegal.
The vex flashlight, as far as I’m aware, is illegal to use now.
LEDs can’t be used for that purpose because they are not a vex part and thus a “nonfunctional decoration” which means that your robot should be able to work just as well with or without them.
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yes because this would be functional so it would not fall under “Non-Functional decoration”
There is a Q&A from Turning Point that asks something very similar to this
https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2018-2019/QA/189
This is the GDC’s response:
Provided that it does not mimic any field elements, is it legal to use the vex flashlight to increase the consistency of the V5 vision sensor in driver control?
The color that a Vision Sensor “looks for” depends upon an expected lighting condition. This is why the same Sensor may require a re-calibration when looking at the same object in sunlight vs under a flashlight.
The intent of was to prevent the scenario where a Robot’s use of the Vision Sensor was impaired by an opponent’s external and unpredictable light source. It should be an expected part of the design challenge to calibrate a Vision Sensor for a given event venue’s lighting conditions. However, it would be impossible to prepare for lighting condition changes mid-match, such as an opponent introducing an external light source.
So - the use of a VEX Flashlight in conjunction with your own Vision Sensor is not, by itself, illegal. However, if your opponent is using a Vision Sensor to look at the same area that you are shining a flashlight on, this could be interpreted by a head referee as a violation of . Thus, it is impossible to provide a blanket ruling that would cover all contexts.
is it legal to use reflective or opaque non-vex components to project the light more accurately onto the flag?
There are no rules preventing this, provided that no other rules are violated in the process. Specifically, the material must satisfy all of the constraints of , especially .
TLDR:
This would mean that using a Flashlight to help the vision sensor would be legal, given that it doesn’t interfere with an opponent’s vision sensor.
BUT, This Q&A is from turning point, and doesn’t apply to this game.
I would suggest that someone asks this again for this season,
I don’t see a reason why the ruling would be different, but it would be smart to ask it again this year just to be sure.
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you can just turn up the brightness in the vision utility
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