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Old 02-02-2021, 10:59 PM
Dobby Dobby is offline
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Post Teleoperated R/C Playground

My intro post to the community notes the lack of groups/clubs/worksites near me which is a problem many people seem to share. I also found a old thread here on the forums about establishing a central 'clubhouse' of sorts though it seemed the idea fizzled due to travel time, distance, and cost.

Drawing on my other interests and the idea/vison behind the ARxterra: Telerobotic Community I propose a (imperfect)solution: Teleoperation!

If travel is such a challenge can we avoid it? Perhaps
Do we really have to be THERE in person? Not necessarily.

-----Explaining the idea-----------
The equipment can be controlled over the internet with various cameras on the vehicles, buildings, poles, etc to provide many different viewpoints. Perhaps small arm bots, utility vehicles, small redesigns and creative thinking be used in place of human interference?

Plus with all the cameras we could broadcast some of the feeds to the internet with small ads for sponsors which can minimize the cost to the club. The general public could also try the hobby in a select area with a select set of equipment over the internet, which massively lowers the barrier to entry.

The conversion of existing models to TelOp would hopefully be relatively simple. The control system(hardware/software) would hopefully be open source, fairly plug n' play and versatile.

Once I have more space I'm hoping to work on this as a pet project though it might take a few years before I can have a test setup(small shed, outdoor area, maybe 10 vehicles). If its popular (and financially possible) a bigger shed with more vehicles would be added.

-----------Future dreams-----------

With sponsors and a large (perhaps international) operator group the ultimate goal/dream would be a "R/C Playground" with a main 1+ acre (200+ft by 200+ft) shed, a few small satellite sheds, outdoor area(s), underground space, water area, etc. In-person Operator events can be held as well but under normal operation people don't enter the playground, the just models.

What do you guys think? I know there is a hundred other challenges to overcome for it to work and I tend to think too big. But I think its possible, just don't know if the interest is there.

So would any y'all be interested in my harebrained scheme?

Thanks for reading!

Last edited by Dobby; 02-02-2021 at 11:05 PM. Reason: corrections
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Old 02-03-2021, 10:36 AM
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frizzen frizzen is offline
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Default Re: Teleoperated R/C Playground

That's a very cool, and massively ambitious plan!

Anything you let the public access needs to have plenty of protections built into it like servo savers, pressure reliefs, limit switches, remote and manual overriding shutdown switches. Probably also want to see if there's a way to do something like geofencing to help reduce people trying to take the excavator off some sweet jumps, or seeing if the haul truck floats.

You might want to start with just some roadway and cars to get all the required programs setup first before going into more complex machines. Try to set up a pretty / scale enough layout you can start building video views and Watcher subscribers early on to help offset some startup cost.

Play subscribers are all going to want a little different thing, but there should be plenty to agree on. Robust machines, with a 'help me' light that your remote operators can trip to get on-scene guys attention. FPV with a gimbal, and maybe some other external camera views to switch between.

I could see the Remote interface just being something like the rc flight sims use. Some kind of text chat or team-speak type communication. Maybe have a way for you to set 'goals' for your sandbox like "dig here, move dirt there"
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Old 02-03-2021, 02:47 PM
Dobby Dobby is offline
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Default Re: Teleoperated R/C Playground

I have always thought bigger then I should haha

I figure all equipment should have servo/motor saving/limit systems, as well as geolimits(shed foundation, pond liner, etc).

The 'public' sandbox could also function as a 'tutorial' and while a subscription isn't needed, community member/profile probably would, less trolls.

All good ideas, the idea is to make it as community based as possible allowing subscribers some way of proposing new projects and voting on them. Subscribers can also build their own equipment and keep it in a personal on-site garage. Structure components can be supplied allowing for bridges, buildings, etc to be built. Perhaps there should also be a trust/operator system to limit usable equipment until they have proven themselves.

Huge possibilities but need to get the ground work set and wanted to see if folks have interest in such a different approach to the hobby.
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clubhouse, idea, park, teleoperation, telop


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