Okay, so the Finals are coming real soon, the usual couple of updates from us:
- First of all, Zoom link: Launch Meeting - Zoom
- Secondly, remember that the VMs will be unavailable from around 8:30-10:30 CEST on the day of the Finals
- Next, a short report from the infrastructure test today:
- The Internet connection worked flawlessly - roughly 950/950Mbps
- The Robot ↔ VM connection worked “okay”. Roughly 550/500Mbps in ideal conditions and around 330/330Mbps in worst-case conditions (no line of sight between the Robot and the Ground Station)
- Cameras from the previous two Tests worked “good enough” - so they’re staying
- Camera angles from the previous test worked good on the proper Marsyard - so they’re staying
- The whole course is definitely drivable through
ros2router(at least manually, while streaming all cameras and the lidar - all of them compressed over the network)
- Finally a couple of tips from us:
- Remember, the Internet connection is a shared resource for all of the Teams. We don’t want to limit it, but we will be monitoring it for any unfair behavior
- The connection between the Robot is good quality but it’s still a wireless connection and has all of it’s usual quirks. In our testing running the compressed streams, even for the locally transmitted data was the most reliable way (roughly 40-70Mbps, depending on the number of topics and the stage of the connection) do we strongly advise to get the data this way (for both the lidar and cameras)
- Cameras have manual (variable) ND filters on them. If you find that the image is far too bright or far too dark - please request an adjustment - (ideally while you have those cameras on a shared screen). Please have in mind that adjusting these too often may be impractical because of the constantly changing lighting conditions. At the start of each Time Slot we will set them to a reasonable default so ideally you won’t need to change that at all
- In case there’s rain - we have a couple of contingencies ready, but have in mind that robot will be fine during short rain showers (which may be visible on the cameras and/or lidar). In case of a downpour - we will most likely pause the Time Slot timer and wait it out
- As couple of Teams had GPS data in incorporated their pipelines - we’ve decided to add such component to the Robot. You’ll find it the NMEA data in an obvious topic (no “panther” namespace though). Please have in mind that this is a best-effort component. We don’t think it’ll be used a whole lot, but it’s there if you need it.
- If you want to evacuate any data from the VM before they become unavailable permanently - please do it as soon as your Time Slot ends. We can’t guarantee that the VMs will be available after the day of the Finals.
One last, but important piece of advice: I know that plenty of you are stressed out right now, I know that even more of you will be stressed out during your Time Slot, especially when things won’t work on the first try. Despite that - please try making a deep breath and enjoying the challenge at least a little bit. While we’re making sure that the tasks are doable, we do not expect anyone to get the full score - due to the sheer number of things to do. Please also remember that none of you are alone in this - you’re starting as a Team and you’re expected to do things as a Team - try multitasking, try dividing the steps between the Team members, etc - especially on a ~1 hour long task. Zoom may only allow for a single person to share their screen, but you may have multiple people connected to the infrastructure and working on different parts of the Challenge at the same time. This single screen share is only a way of communicating your progress to the Judges, so please don’t make it limit you - instead make it your advantage and use it to show either your most valuable progress or the most pressing issues you’re facing. The Judges are there both to score you (and we’re trying to hand out as many points as we can) and to help you in case if any issues. If we’re not answering right away - we’re most likely already busy trying to figure out the issue on our own so please be patient and try using those couple of seconds to take a deep breath and only then think about the issue at hand again.
Have fun, good luck and see you tomorrow!
Paweł on behalf of the Husarion Team