Guesses for what the field will look like
 

Now that the field BOM has been released what do all of you think the field will look like?
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2002/earlyBOM.pdf
that is the link if you need it

My guess is blue and semi-glossy.

Well, casters would definitely imply that a part of the field is going to move. It is also going to have A LOT of PVC in it. Possibly some sort of pvc-based rack or bin mounted on a large blue moving platform? One thing's for sure: it's blue.

the closest they get to using water?

-ANkuR
safety first!

bom stuff
 

after printing out the bill of materials i ran down to home depot today. i collected all the pieces in an empty isle(sp?) and started playing. the nipple things and end mounts for the iron pipe will probably be used to make a 12 inch stand off of some kind. i think the casters are the same as last year they are swivel with ~3inch wheels and ~4 overall height. i took a look at the pvc stuff also, the 3" stuff is easy to figure out. we get a wide based mount (the water thing) which connects to the 10' piece with a connector. the part that scares me is that the didnt give us a list of connectors for the 1" pvc. the scary would be if they didnt give us connectors. we get 160' yes thats alot, and if we are using connectors were gunna need a lot of them. i though the whole reason for a bom was to have time to collect all the materials that we would need a lot of. if we need pvc connectors for the 160' were gunna need a lot. i also checked out the paint it is a nice shade of blue not as babyish as the stuff from a few years back. any questions feel free to ask.

tyler forbes
team 151
"wildcards"

Quote from FIRST's web page - "As always, to add a little more suspense, this may or may not be a complete list of parts." Definitly sounds like they left out some of the connectors then to make it harder to figgure out what its going to look like. If they what connectors you need, people can start figguring out actual shapes etc.

~Tom Fairchild~, who's just gotten more excited about this year's season thanks to the BOM.

Then that means there could still be a spinning goal remnicant of 1997! :cool:

I'm guessing that with the amount of pvc maybe they have us on some sorta grid like thing, but they seemed to be very precise about the color, it's a nice color, nbut i fell like The list definitly is not complete and there are mnay things missing, esspecially connectors, but that's my assumption.... :confused:

---Randy

From what I've read there has always been something that is in the center of the field so maybe all of the PVC would be used as a bump, ramp, or bridge. But also let's not forget those casters have to go somewhere. Finally what's wit the plumbing section. I haven't shopped with our coach yet but it sounds like they want to give us the feeling of water without using water

so my guess it that the PVC will be laid out like waves and have something in the middle in a 4 Vs 4 style (hey you wanted contact right)

Ok let me make this Fast
 

I went to Home Depot (several) here on the West Coast in CA Bay Area and I cleaned out 3 HD's for the flanges. Man I am glad that i went now.

Second thing is that in the Materials Bill it says that the part ### for the 4" by 3" adjustable ring is 4851-2-A NIBCO 4*3 now i don't know anything about New Hampshire Home Depot but here the part ### (i assume i have the right one) is 5851-2-A NIBCO 4*3 (see the first digit is 5 not 4) now i can see how it could be easily mistyped but i just want to confirm that i have the right part!

I think we are wasting our time trying to figure out what its gonna be. We could just wait a week and a half :)

PVC can be made into so many different things its scairy. Of course the fact they added the blue paint in there might mean somthing- or it might just be their idea of a funny joke, they would get a laugh out of reading this board!

Greg

Re: Ok let me make this Fast
 

I have a feeling you've got a different part...in trying to figure out what some of these parts looked like, I did some wandering online, and ended up at Nibco's web site. There is a part numbered 4851-2-A that matches the description given on the BoM. The 5851-2-A may be very similar, but if FIRST was specific enough to give the part number, I have a feeling we're going to need that particular one. Also, something I thought of while running ideas through my head...just because they've got us getting 16 10ft sections of PVC, doesn't necessarily mean that the entire 10ft will be used(i.e. 7ft of a 10ft piece, etc.)

Well I figured it out
 

It was my mistake the part I bough starts with a 5, in the NIBCO numering systems 5 is ABS plastic, we need PVC which is a 4

Dr Joe Breaks His Own Rule...
 

Okay, I can't help myself here is my guess (AND IT IS ONLY A GUESS BASED ON PUBLIC DATA -- I HAVE NO SPECIAL ACCESS TO GAIN SPECIAL INFO):

Prediction #1
Dr Joe Confidence Level: 90%
Flat carpeted floor -- nothing in the BOM gives us any thing to even make a non-flat floor with.

Prediction #2
Dr Joe Confidence Level: 40%
One Goal on casters
Square goal 4X4 ft.
Nipples & flanges will provide offet for upper deck made from second half of plywood base.
Upper Deck will have a large hold (probably round) cut out of it in the center.
3" PVC Conduit will mount to center of lower deck, probably cut to 8 ft tall
1" PVC Conduit will be place upright through the middle of the Nipples & Flanges (1.25 dia holes in the uppper deck will be required of course). They will probably be cut to 6 ft tall or so. My guess on the pattern is that they will be in a square pattern with 5 per side for a total of 16 uprights.


Predition #3
Dr Joe Confidence Level: 50%
Game Piece will be toroids (but probably not painted inner tubes, I am thinking inflatable floaties or unpainted inner tubes)

Predition #4
Dr Joe Confidence Level: 30%
Scoring will be based on getting tubes on PVC pipes or supported by upper and lower decks. Bonus points (or perhaps a doubler) will be given for getting the goal into specific areas of the field (e.g. across a center line or into an end zone).


There! That is my guess.

What is yours?

Joe J.

Yes, torrids!

Hmm... maybe I should actualy read the parts list. :o

Re: Dr Joe Breaks His Own Rule...
 

I was thinking at least this much myself...time will tell...

Assumptions:

*The playing format is going to be 2 v 2
*Time will most likely not be a factor
*It is going to be a rectangular field with the main obstacle in the middle.
*The centerpiece will have an incline, and low clearance on the other parts
*I believe that it will be one whole piece, not moveable piece (as they saw that PVC broke very easily)
*The PVC is Probably going to be an elevated Cage where balls can be deposited (some kind on combo of 2000 and 1998)
*The goal would be to squeeze balls in or deposit on top for lesser points
*The PVC is going to be painted blue, like the PVC was painted gray last year
*the steel will be used to support the PVC
*The piece of wood is most likely to build an incline
*Control stations would be like the 2000 station.
* On the incline you would have to balance, raise, or grab hold of something to gain extra points.

That deceiving blue paint can.
 

Maybe it's part of the field's objects that you have to manipulate :P

One team alliance!!
 

Since there is only one can of paint... does this mean there will be only one team (think last year). I hope they put a can of red paint on the final list......

Whaddya think?

We have to remember they're just doing this to play with us.

btw- Ralph Lauren paint? Are they going with designer stuff??


-Chris-

and i'm sure that'll be REALLY expensive paint that costs at least $30. FIRST needs to cut costs

Ralph Lauren Spinnaker Blue Quart - $10.47 (from the BOM)

Info Found Online:
Ralph Lauren paint line: Manufactured by Sherwin Williams until sometime in 2001(forgot the date), then transferred to Glidden.

i was waaaaaay off. whoops:rolleyes:

I went to disneyland this weekend and was thinking, FIRST may have made it so the BOM we got now leads us in a totally different direction then what we are thinking of. We are not thinking out of the box and trying to use all of the pieces and not thinking that there will be other pieces that might play large roles in the field.

Just my 2 cents

Chances are...
 

The chances are with this setup of materials, and the little disclaimer saying this may or may not be all the materials, there are probably mutiple versions of the field that can be constructed.

So let's say someone figures out what the field is. Well come Jan 5th they can simply say, oh let's go for PLAN B.

It's still fun thinking what the field will look like though.

Re: Chances are...
 

I really doubt FIRST would make major changes to the game anymore. They've been planning and tweaking for a year just to get the perfect game. Big changes to the playing field objects would definately change the character of the game. Also, my sources tell me that FIRST has finalized the rule book, and all further changes will be updates. Note: I know nothing about the rules, only that they're done

Mike

Has anybody thought that the 1" pvc pipes may be the objects that we have to manipulate. It would take some precision to slide them into the 1-1/4'" nipples!

FIRST was probably watching the entire time we were all predicting the game. They may have thought of a game none of us have mentioned.

Re: Dr Joe Breaks His Own Rule...
 

Tennis Balls (Seriously)

Bowling Balls (Semi Seriously)

Bowling Pins (Why Not?)

Sand Bags (that shouls give all them long spindly arms a heart attack)

Keep in mind this
 

Here are some more of my thoughts:

Rookie teams will have a REALLY hard time doing half the things we have mentioned. That said i think that the game will involve some kind of "you go there you get points" type of thing. Shure alot of the rookies have GREAT robots and i mean it but there always are a few (who don't read this forum) who have a hard time making something that move reliably from one side of the field to the other and has to also do something else. There fore we get the "you go there you get points". Now as for the casters i think (outside the box) not only you can have them be on the thing that moves but also be on the floor and the thing that moves lies on top of them. But most likely the casters are for the stretcher that didn't work as well last year. (The stretcher idea also couples with the "endzone" idea well) so i think that the only parts of the field we can guess on are:

The stretcher
The Endzone (don't have to be in the end of the field)

GAME 2002
 

This has to be one of my most favorite times of the year...

Listining to everyones idea of the game for the up coming season.

I'm pretty sure that there wont be 4 teams working together, since the general FIRST public diddnt like it all to much.

I'd like to see 4 teams on the feild everyone for themself.

As for the feild.. FIRST only knows what it is going to be this year..

Have a good holiday to all!

Josh

TEAM 501

There is really only 1 thing we are 100% sure of right now: the controllers are Innovation FIRST.