New Game Idea: ROBOT HOCKEY!! [Archive]

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the_short1

30-03-2006, 08:44

first off thanks to: Rick TYler for suggesting the use of pucks as a scoring object in this thread:http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=480010&posted=1#post480010

well i took it one step further.. . . robot hockey.. . . this years game seems to me like football.. with field goals in the uprights (center goal)... and low goals as touchdowns.. .

ok.. so with hockey as next years game:

have the 3 periods like this years game, with one robot in goal on defence period, then ffa at the end where you can choose.. could have multiple pucks on the ice at once to make it more lively.... *low shooting speed rule as not to damage robots*.. we could also start all 6 robots at blue line, with a few pucks at the center ice, and autom would be to grab the most pucks or the single puck, and win the faceoff. vision tracking a neon yellow puck? and having the green lights inside the goal...

three main types of bots needed:
goaltenders
defence
offence
so 3 radically different robot designs, would be fun to watch a team try to do all 3..

PROS:

- new surface to play on (ice) means a lot of new ideas / innovation to have traction, so teams have to start a NEW drivetrain...
- real engineers etc looking at the robots might get ideas on new traction devices in the real world.
- new scoring object, but for those that played 2006 game it woulnt be too hard to change balls to pucks (put shooting wheel on side.. with puck flat.. . voila..)
- has a decent level of banging up on each other (against the walls), but most of the time it may be gentler cuz you cant ram against a robot in the middle of the ice.. .theirs not enuf traction.

CONS:

- need to find a venue with ice capabilities...
- might be a little colder for some..
- ice might get damaged quickly if robots fall over
- field might become more expensive to maintain in some places...
- ice is slippery for people to go on field
- im a crazy canadian .. .

EDIT: if you really dont like the whole ice idea.. it can still be played but on carpet.. . but with a different puck material..

tell me what you think / ideas to add..
-kevin

psyco_klown

30-03-2006, 09:16

i like the idea of the ice it would be cool to see. as for the you needing an ice rink you don't need one there is are companies that makes super slippery delrin material for ice skaters and they get put together like tiles. plus i would like to see what teams would come up with for drive trains

Richard Wallace

30-03-2006, 09:25

Hockey! Even Americans gotta love hockey!

So we'd get to hear "O Canada" sung during opening ceremonies at all the regionals, eh?

Best part: the Zamboni (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sharkssponsorconnect.com/sponsorship/images/large_images/sharks_signage/zamboni.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sharkssponsorconnect.com/sponsorship/signage/sharks_signage/sharks_signage4.htm&h=282&w=430&sz=31&tbnid=qUNm9PIUZGoJ:&tbnh=80&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dzamboni%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D&start=3&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2) machine! Better make the field elements easy to remove while the ice gets resurfaced!

Tim Baird

30-03-2006, 10:14

if you really dont like the whole ice idea.. it can still be played but on carpet.. . but with a different puck material..
Well, you could always use those street hockey pucks that have the ball bearings in them. I used to use those all the time and they run pretty good on asphalt. I'm sure they'd fly on carpet... :D

hansTP2S

30-03-2006, 10:17

Speeding, hard discs flying at our robots seems like a really good idea.

Bill Moore

30-03-2006, 11:21

as for the you needing an ice rink you don't need one there is are companies that makes super slippery delrin material for ice skaters and they get put together like tiles. plus i would like to see what teams would come up with for drive trains
Using a non-carpet surface is the easiest method for FIRST to create a hockey-based game, but it doesn't need to be an expensive material. You could use squares of masonite screwed onto the subfloor. Sure the field will get some scars, but if one square gets significantly damaged, it can quickly be replaced.

I would love to see any game that increases interactivity within the alliance, rather than just against opponents. A fast-paced hockey based game could do that.

Also, street hockey pucks are a great design for this game, but they may be too low to the ground and get underneath disabled robots. You would have to account for this in some manner. There have been a number of posts about "pushing a tipped robot up the ramp for points" this year, and we wouldn't want a robot, already unable to move, get beaten to shreds as other robots fight to get a puck stuck underneath them.

buss

30-03-2006, 13:32

Ok, after watching the winter olympics, all I have to say is two words:
Robot Curling.

That has to be the best sport I've ever seen. And that's not even sarcasm!

Rick TYler

30-03-2006, 13:37

Curling [-] That has to be the best sport I've ever seen. And that's not even sarcasm!

We took a Boy Scout troop curling a couple of years ago, and they had a blast. The boys were also gleeful that the only people who fell down were adults.

Robot curling -- would they sweep and shoot both? Using full-size rocks? Sounds cool to me, but not much would happen in two minutes.

John Gutmann

30-03-2006, 15:39

the_short1

30-03-2006, 17:07

The only problem I see with this game Idea is that the pucks are so small. This means one team would beable to hold probally all the pucks on the field at once really easya nd it would be hard for the drives to see what is going on with the pucks.

Also what would the human player do?

hehe.. wow i thought this was more of a crazy idea then something doable :ahh: .. cool.. . .as for pucks too small.... what about circles of HARD cheese?? ? .. ok that was a joke... could be a larger version of a puck, and if a robots on its side.. their going to slide real easy out of the way.. .. too many pucks? make possession limit rules.

acually now that i think about it more.. . their should be VERY little fallen robots.. they should all have low chasis to pick up pucks and low CofG because your not trying to shoot high... and you might have a stick style shooter which would be cool to see how they made the stick swing... our school made a robot shoot hockey balls for 2002? Canadian First robotics challenge.. and they had it slapshot

what would the human players do.. ok this is great idea: make them the goalie! im sure 200lb hockey players running into goalies / much faster hard pucks would hurt more then 130 lb robots shooting plastic ones at low velocity :P hahaha.. i smell not safe, but it would be cool... they can feed pucks?

zamboni: make a robotic zamboni, autonymously programmed.. we have the people, technology, and smarts. FIRST could ship this bot around to each regional well maybe have 2 in case one breaks..

irishninja

30-03-2006, 18:35

What about twelve inch diamter omni wheels for the pucks?

Simon Strauss

30-03-2006, 19:14

So we'd get to hear "O Canada" sung during opening ceremonies at all the regionals, eh?

I'll have you know 1155 has been singing O' Canada after the other anthems at NYC for the past two years.

Also as goalie i love this idea but agree with whats been said on the matter of, all the fun parts of hockey and challenge will have to be taken out for it to be safe (small pucks etc). Also i unfortunately feel that these changes would remove the possibility for complicated and or interesting manipulators to appear on robots if the puck is too big. simple solution, anyone remember Crossfire, it was a table hockey based game that came out around '97 and used many small steel marbles along with having the most awesome theme song ever. for those of you who want hockey or curling a game like this might just satisfy your needs because it includes multiple high speed objects(whether they be pucks, poof balls or bouncy balls) going into goals and the usage of a more traditional sport type defence, team work and goal tenders. (i also think that this could be improved by making the max size for the robots smaller but that just might be my "the wheels are too big" pet peeve)

Richard Wallace

30-03-2006, 20:29

So we'd get to hear "O Canada" sung during opening ceremonies at all the regionals, eh?I'll have you know 1155 has been singing O' Canada after the other anthems at NYC for the past two years.Nice! Especially considering that no Canadian teams were at NYC this year. [Though I think the UK and Brazil were each represented.]

I like hearing "O Canada" and "The Star Spangled Banner" sung one right after the other. Quite a tough job for the vocalist, one because of the accidentals and intervals, the other for its sheer range. This certainly adds to the challenge of auditioning to sing them.

I wonder how many FRC regionals get to hear both? Hopefully any where Canadian teams are entered. This year I think that may mean more than half of the regionals.

Did they sing the Brazilian anthem at NJ this year? I recall hearing it at MWR a couple of years ago.

Duncan Macdonald

30-03-2006, 20:58

I like the idea of a change in the floor then we'll see how imaginative ideas can get while trying to move on the ice.

Donut

30-03-2006, 21:01

I really like this idea of a slick tile playing surface. I don't think there'll be nearly as much of a problem as there was with tearing up carpet (though I'm sure a few tiles will crack), plus it gives teams a new challenge and gives them the chance to try some new drive train ideas (who else wouldn't want to try to build a snowmobile drive system?).

And as for National Anthems, nothing quite beats getting to hear pretty much all of continental North America played out in 5-10 minutes (AZ Regional the past 3 years).

Gabe

30-03-2006, 21:23

Richard Wallace

30-03-2006, 21:30

What kind of obstacles would there be? ... Hmmmm... :)Maybe 24" wide x 8" tall squares, circles, and triangles (with cordura-over-pool-noodle bumpers) randomly scattered around the floor to deflect direct shots on goal, similar to what you'd see inside a pinball machine.

s_forbes

30-03-2006, 21:31

Maybe instead of ice... Giant air hockey table?

EnderWiggin

30-03-2006, 22:17

Memories of Canada FIRST, anybody?

Vince lau

30-03-2006, 22:26

Memories of Canada FIRST, anybody?

yeah for those in Canada that did the Canada FIRST robotics competition, before US FIRST came here, will remember having a curling game and hockey (twice) i think

bbguy5

30-03-2006, 22:55

someone needs to explain curling to me...i just don't get it

Rick TYler

30-03-2006, 22:57

someone needs to explain curling to me...i just don't get it

Here it is, right on the button: http://www.usacurl.org/basics/main.html

EricRobodox

30-03-2006, 23:00

HOCKEY WOULD BE AWSOME!!! ahaha. Just im think icing calls would cause games to be boring. ahaha. jk

Curling is basically shuffle board on ice. The brooms are used to speed and curve the stone (the coffe pot thing that is used like a disc in suffleboard).

But, hockey would be so cool, just i can see two robots throwing the gloves down and duking one out. ahhaha. The main song playing on the DJ station would be techno music like at hockey games. ahaha. Far from FIRST i think, but an awsome idea.

Rick TYler

30-03-2006, 23:02

Curling is basically shuffle board on ice. The brooms are used to speed and curve the stone (the coffe pot thing that is used like a disc in suffleboard).

For those of you who took the old SAT: shuffleboard is to curling as tic-tac-toe is to chess.

Sheesh.

EricRobodox

30-03-2006, 23:04

sorry i offended you. ahaha. just a general thing. ahaha.

Kevin Kolodziej

30-03-2006, 23:12

Its been a fairly guarded secret so far, but I'll drop a few hints. The robot club here at MSOE has been working on an "ice bot" for a few months now. We've finally acquired all the parts we need, except for some victors and/or spikes (I think) and its growing closer and closer to a reality. I won't give you any hints on the drive system yet, but you'll love it (if it works).

The bot is a prototype for a college level (at least) competition in the Milwaukee area (and whoever wants to come) using...yep - you guessed it...ice. One small step at a time...

We toyed with the idea of next year's Milwaukee VEX League being on the ice, but there are some logistics we haven't figured out yet. The dream is not dead though... :ahh: MSOE's new Kern Center ice arena is perfect for this sort of thing...

Kev

Donut

31-03-2006, 00:44

What kind of obstacles would there be? It seems to me that the lack of anything on the floor (low bar, steps, bridge, etc.) for this year or last year makes me suspect that FIRST is going to make navigating the field just a little treacherous. If you think about it, one if the reasons Triple Play was a simpler challenge was because there was nothing that the robot could get hung up on. There must be some way you could intergrate obstacles into thhe hockey field. Hmmmm... :)

I think there was something to get hung up on; the goal. We actually had our robot shoved inside of the goal one match and we couldn't get back out again.

There would need to be some kind of field elements out there though; the simple robotic hockey concept doesn't even have ramps against the sides. That would be interesting with large movable bumpers, and teams could as a strategy stuff them in front of their own goal to prevent their opponents from scoring.

I want to see the ice bot!

GaryVoshol

31-03-2006, 07:38

Robot short-track speed skating!

paulcd2000

02-04-2006, 13:24

sounds like a lot of fun to me! i really like the part about running on a different surface, mostly for the drivetrain, but also because it requires much more drive skill. the robots would slide like KWAZY! it would be awesome to watch. frustrating for drivers, though

the_short1

04-04-2006, 10:52

indeed show some pics of the ice bot!!!

obstacles.. i think some random chunks of carpet (maybe in the shape of a small bump) , so if you slide into them you might stop / slowdown.. .

Danielle H

04-04-2006, 11:02

the_short1

04-04-2006, 15:38

I'm not sure if this has already been asked, I wanted to ask before I lost the question...

Would build season either start earlier or go longer or both? Because what you're talking about is one team trying to come up with and build three different bots, so far, in the time that it took us all to build one bot. I don't know about some of you, but out bot was having issues so we were working pretty much right up to shipping date... again, on ONE bot.

no you misunderstood, what i said was theirs opportunity for 3 uniquely different designs.. such as this year .. it was defence.. low score. .or high score. . with hockey.. offence.. defence.. and goalie..

hope that clarifies that :)

Danielle H

04-04-2006, 15:53

no you misunderstood, what i said was theirs opportunity for 3 uniquely different designs.. such as this year .. it was defence.. low score. .or high score. . with hockey.. offence.. defence.. and goalie..

hope that clarifies that :)

Oh... hah. I get it now. I'm sorry.

It's one of those blonde + lack of sleep = stupidity moments, I guess. :D Thanks for clearing that up.

I found the quote that confused me. "so 3 radically different robot designs, would be fun to watch a team try to do all 3.."

I now understand that you meant it would be interesting to see a team try all three, but they are not required to do all three, right?

Heh.