drawer / Sensors & Controls
A fiducial marker (like a simple QR code) placed on the field that cameras use to estimate the robot's pose.
also calledFiducial markerApril tag
where you actually meet AprilTag
AprilTags turned FRC vision from “find the retroreflective blob” into “here is my position on the field”. In a match that means auto-aligning to a scoring location and correcting odometry drift mid-cycle. The practical caveats are distance and angle: a tag seen far away and off-axis gives a noisy pose, which is why teams weight multi-tag measurements much more heavily.
Free and structured, and none of them need an account to read.
2lessons
the jargon travels in packs
Sensors & Controls
Free, open-source vision software that runs on a coprocessor or Limelight for targeting and pose estimation.
read the entrySensors & Controls
A plug-and-play smart camera widely used for FRC vision targeting and AprilTag-based localization.
read the entrySoftware
Tracking the robot's position on the field over time using encoder and gyro data (often fused with vision).
read the entrySensors & Controls
A sensor that measures rotation/position of a shaft, essential for closed-loop control and odometry.
read the entryAprilTag is one of 70 entries in the catalogue. The guides are where these words get used in order, instead of one at a time.