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Thread: 802.11

  1. #1
    Not sure if this is the place for this, but...

    I cant be the first person to have wondered this. Would there be any mileage in allowing 802.11b/g (WiFi, except to pedants) as a transceiver frequency band? It implies a degree of intelligence on the part of both ends of the link, but if theres a fair bit of electronics handling a complex robot anyway then a TCP/IP stack isnt so hard to add.

    Obviously Im assuming that the device is going to do some decent error recovery, use some secure protocol to avoid accidental interference, have the obvious failsafes, and so on. Nonetheless, stuffing a cheap pcmcia card in a machine seems less hassle, once you have a level of intelligence on board, than playing with 40MHz radio modems. Note that I have no delusions about burying a laptop on board and expecting it to survive, although nano-ITX and a lot of padding might be interesting.

    Even in combat conditions Id expect relatively decent bandwidth, and there wouldnt be the issues with crystal swapping. Bluetooth doesnt have the range, but 802.11 does. 802.11a has fewer interference issues, but the 2.4GHz variants are a bit more common.

    Has anyone tried it? I can believe there are latency problems if theres a lot of interference (it might be helpful to try to get the audience to turn their laptops off!) but I dont see many other downsides.

    Aside from protecting the hardware, the small motherboards are cheap, the cards are cheap, and you can drive it from a laptop - all of which would save me playing games with electronics which Im more likely to mis-use, and which is more expensive.

    Anyway, just wondering if there was a reason not to allow it - or, if event organisers are happy with it, to explicitly allow them in the rules. If so it might be wise to request a bandwidth limit (otherwise the electrical jamming rule could be infringed by someone sending video back from a camera on the robot) but, safety checks aside, I dont think it would influence much else.

    I dont need it for any robot Ill be building just yet, but it would be nice to know its out there in the future.

    --
    Fluppet

  2. #2
    Youre right, you are not the first one to wonder about it. Just as i wondered if the IFI Isaac 16 Control System are allowed in the FRA rules.

    I could not find a specific ruling for them, and therefore concluded that they are not allowed.

    It might be a suggestion to add them or at least discuss adding these into the rules.

    For specs on on th IFI Isaac 16 Control System, see: http://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_ifirobotics.htmlhttp://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_ifirobotics.html

    --
    Leo

  3. #3
    Guest
    I cant see any real problems with WiFi to be honest, other than I seem to remember Mentorn not being too happy about data being transmitted back from the data (although this was intended for telemetry AFAIK). It wouldnt be easy, but itd be an interesting project.

    I looked into the ISAAC systems some time ago and couldnt see it being an easy task to make it operate on UK frequencies, I think they are intended for 75MHz.

  4. #4
    If you put a camera on your robot, stick a GPRS card into your laptop and connect it to the internet then you can effectively control your robot from anywhere on the net! Just think of driving from the comfort of your armchair at home, whilst the rest of your team do all the heavy lifting work! Wouldnt be as fun though would it.

  5. #5

  6. #6
    75 Mhz?

    quote from IFI:

    Notice to BattleBots„ Competitors: The use of these modems for the purpose of BattleBots„ is restricted unless used with the Isaac32 or Isacc16 Control System by IFI Robotics. This agreement between BattleBots and IFI Robotics restricts the use of the 902-905 MHz, and 925-928 MHz portion of the ISM Band to the IFI Robotics systems exclusively.

  7. #7

  8. #8
    Guest
    Either way, it aint a legal band to use over here.

  9. #9
    Guest
    Dave, theres already a guy here in Sweden who have done that!

    http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/25/551.html#POST2074http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc....html#POST2074
    http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/26/220.html#POST2075http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc....html#POST2075
    http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/20/461.html#POST2076http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc....html#POST2076
    http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/10/941.html#POST2077http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc....html#POST2077

  10. #10

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