Woodie said " 'y = ax(2) + bx + c,' he said solemnly, before adding with a chuckle, 'Just don't ask me about the rumors about the gerbils and the thousand pounds of Jello.' " My theory is this: we need to launch a gerbil, on a parabolic trajectory over a wall, into a tub of jello.

....with little or no splash, a-la olympic diving.

No, can't do that...dont wanna upset PETA :p

y = ax(2) + bx + c
 

If Woodie's comment (which I think everyone is obsessing about just a little too much) is sooo cryptic, then may he's referring to the Quad in Quadratic. Just imagine the insanity of a square field (mind you, a square is a rectangle, so this isn't going to happen according to some). It's split into 4 quads. How would the game be set up then? Would everyone have to stick to their own quad? Does everyone has a goal? Would there be alliances?

I'm ready to hear the real game. There are a lot of promises that it will be shockingly new. Can't wait!

could this formula be hinting toward more alliances or maybe even knowing who you will be teaming up with. Don't the revolving lights have a parabolic mirror inside. Maybe we are going to be teamed up ahead of time and each team build a robot to do half the challange.

Upsetting PETA would be more fun than launching the gerbils. :D

Last year, our robot picked up the soccer balls and shot them. It had a maximum range (with little accuracy) of about 30 feet. Our main limit is the height of the ceiling. Our limit on fire rate was the ball pick up speed.

The two safety issues on firing balls are: firing into the crowd and firing into a player station.

We considered firing into the opposing player station to disrupt them. We chose not to because of the safety issues and because of gracious professionalism.

We chose not to fire into the crowd because it would make no competitive sense. Further, by the time a ball might get to the crowd, it would have spent most of its energy and would be fairly easy to catch.

From a practical stand-point, as you increase range, you have to invest more resources in your shooter. Most designers are going to pick the maximum sensible range figure (probably 30-40 feet) and design around that. Any further range would be a waste of resources.

Given variability in ball characteristics (size, pressurization, surface texture), accuracy becomes extremely problematic beyond about 15 feet. Improving accuracy means investing more design resources.

In the past three years, there have been "shootable" balls available. However, very few teams have invested in developing a ball shooter. Most teams that handle balls have gone with the basket bot strategy.

I anticipate that there will be objects on the playing field that can be handled and delivered by robots. In part, this is because of the human player aspect. (Maybe that is one of the groans that Woodie was talking about...no more human player.) As long as there are small,movable playing field objects, then shooting/hurling them will be a viable option. Whether it is the best option will depend on the other game elements.

I, for one, hope that the playing field will be more interesting this year than last year. I also hope that soccer balls or basket balls make an appearance. I really hope that the game goes away from a tug of war game and towards a more skill game. It would also be nice if offense and defense were equally valuable in the qualifying rounds. Maybe this will be the second groan...no more 3x loser's score.

Andrew
Team 356

what about this
 

I can't remember who said it but i think that people need to look further then the parabola........think in real life what are parabola's used for, well light and sound for the common applications. What if the FIRST crew this year wanted things to be completely different? What if the robots had to go and manipulate sound or focus light beams using lenses. I think that that would be fun don't you??

Also I have an instinct to tell me that the football will be the ball of choice this year......don’t ask it just makes sense to me.

As far as the kit I have some ideas.....
1) The only guaranteed motor in it this year will be the seat motors
2) The kit may include a frame
3) Don’t expect the same limitations on parts (maybe just a cost limit)

Well we shall see soon.........

Has anyone other than myself noticed that the full size robot controller default program has still not been released yet. Perhaps this years game has some sort of new programming element to it.

just a thought

Well, you can bet that there will probably be lifting involved. Our team got an email with a hint saying that we should bring a large roller cart. Probably two crates full of stuff. But then again, we are rookies this year.