Vex AI - startup costs?

[Travis]

Hi there,

I was just curious if anyone knew what the startup cost for a brand new Vex AI team is going to be, and when the required products might be available? We’d primarily just need electronics as we already have a good stock of VexPro parts and some moderate machining capabilities. We’re new to Vex but not new to robotics competitions. Thanks!

[tabor473]

Hey glad to have teams interested in the AI competition.

We don’t know what hardware will be included in the Vex AI registration, or anything about the Vex AI special parts.

But I can try to give you a sense for what you can likely expect.

MQP V5 robot

This robot used 100$ in cameras to see the whole field.
350$ in computers
And a 1000$ lidar just for localization. (borrowed from lab at university and luckily localization should be solved by vex.)

Here is 1 image from 1 camera after running object detection.

Obviously all the normal vex parts as well. Ballpark I’d put that at 3-4k, to repeatedly build 2 robots. Which is a lot more transparent and well discussed on this forum.

What is your team’s background? FRC? FTC?

[Travis]

Thanks for the info!

Our background is in FTC and FRC but always looking for new and interesting things to try.

Has Vex released info about when the equipment might be available?

[tabor473]

Sadly no.
@DanMantz care to give us any info on when we might hear more about Vex AI? I understand all the details aren’t ready now, but a date when you will announce details would be nice.

I know several teams are ready to register right now.

And can I say Dan, coolest thing to happen to VEX in years.

[MTO967]

Hey, I’ll go ahead and share some info that was shared during the “beta” period of the RAIC earlier this year.
The VEXU teams were given a list of components that ran about $1200 total for all the extra parts you would need for both robots.
this included (among other things) :
depth sensing camera
nvidia jetson (small AI computer)
thermal camera for reading the bar codes that go around the perimeter of the field

I’m sure that these wont be the official costs, but thats the last figure anyone has been given to my knowledge.

[tabor473]

It wasn’t a thermal camera. It was grayscale camera.

The document was leaked recently and caused a lot of confusion so I’d like to reiterate what I said there.

Vex AI part legality questions

I have told him it is likely the team will be completely out the 1000$ spent on those parts and have them be completely useless when we get more VEX AI information. I strongly suggest no one actually buy any of those things right now until we actually see what RECF provides with registration and how the competition will go.

[MTO967]

Yes, this list is very outdated and probably not accurate, its just the last piece of information about costs that Vex has put out and I wouldn’t expect an official announcement until after/during the National Event Partner Summit in July.

[rbenasutti]

@MTO967

this list is very outdated and probably not accurate

Then please, don’t share it.

[MTO967]

Although it may be outdated, It is the most recent publicly available information provided by REC

It should be made available to show schools that the costs will be in this ball park as the AI video shows they are using similar specs as those provided in the showcase packet that was sent out but with Vex branding on it.