Hi! I was wondering if telemetry data out of the robot during a match is allowed? I noticed that the rules explicitly allow comms between bots as long as its 2.4ghz and 100mW, and that “The use of remote control of any kind is not allowed during the match. Robots must be controlled autonomously.” However, there are no rules regarding one way communication from the bot to a device (i.e. a laptop). May I ask if this is allowed (i.e. for monitoring of battery voltage, checking bot state) as long as the device does not send data back to the robot? Thanks!
Communication between robots is explicitly permitted, which only makes sense because any other communication is not permissible.
.
.
.
Speaking for myself and not the committee starting here:
It is not illegal for you (or anyone else) to receive these communications between robots on a laptop near to the field. I would consider the laptop being inside the same WiFi network (or any kind of established connection) as impermissible though because then it is communicating with the robot (even if it is just authentication, DHCP, WiFi and TCP acknowledgements etc.). If you want to try to snap up some telemetry this is how I would do it: Send what you want the laptop to hear from each bot to the other (unencrypted or encrypted with a static key the laptop knows) via e.g. WiFi at reasonably low bit rate and repeatedly (so if packets get lost the laptop can receive them again without having to ask for retransmission) and set your laptop to monitor mode, then filter for the mac addresses of your robots.
Even then be very prepared for demonstrating how your laptop isn’t sending anything and for some referees and tournament organizers telling you to turn it off anyway if it causes any concern. It is more important that other teams feel you’re playing fair than that you get your telemetry.
For those cases (and to make sure you have all of it) I would suggest also saving it on the robot (MicroSD is easy to do on most microcontrollers because they speak SPI for example),