Hi there!

It's been a while since I've wrote my last post. However, the discontinuation of a Mindstorms line make me think for a moment. In Make Magazine Vol 06 (May of 2006!) there was a article about building your own robotic football (soccer) with two RCX driven robots on each side, a camera for computer vision and a computer for the whole. At that time I did not have enough of a budget nor knowledge to build such a contraption. I am aware of some other Lego Football projects but they again use a bunch of Mindstorms and some special equipment (like IR ball)

But given the advantage in computer hardware and software, I think it might be possible to build something like this without the Mindstorms bricks. I think the whole setup could be:

• A pitch (a table or something like that) with two goals and a ball (something like a ping pong ball)
• A camera phone mounted over the pitch with the computer vision tool. This would recognize the bots and the ball and their positions.
• The "coach app", which would transfer the positions of players and ball to commands for each player (please, picture your favorite coach screaming at the players). I am not sure if it would be better to have two phones or one phone with two strategies for each team.
• The BT app that would relay the commands to the players
• Of course two sets of robots with BT receiver (I was thinking something like BuWizz since it already have battery and I think it has an open API).

As you might suspect, I just don't have capabilities to do that. I guess I still remember how to build simple trolleys (football playing robots) but I do lack of knowledge on the software part. I've watched some videos about open source computer vision software like OpenCV but my old mind just don't get it

I am not sure if there is anybody interested in this. If somebody is, I think it would be a fun little project for home and perhaps even for brick-shows. As mentioned, I am not capable to do this, I just have an idea. I would be grateful if you could provide me with some advice. Thanks!

 

Edited November 15, 20222 yr by teflon

6 hours ago, teflon said:

But given the advantage in computer hardware and software, I think it might be possible to build something like this without the Mindstorms bricks.

Your proposal is to do this with current (PUp) hard- and software, or am I mistaken?

Best,
Thorsten

Your question reflects my absence from the active Lego community. Sorry about that. I am not aware of PUb hard/software, since I only have a handful of newer motors (and I haven't used them for some time now). But I guess BT communication would allow use of PUb motors (I understand that the PUb communication protocol is open for usage).