My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Since I already typed this somewhere else, please go HERE and read my hints on what I think the game will consist of in 2004.

If you have any guesses what my guess is, please feel free to share them here!!!

Oh, and I will reveal what I know (or don't know) on Monday so keep checking back at that link to see what I think FIRST has in store for us in 2004.

Elgin
:)

Trying to guess what the next game is going to be is like trying to guess how many stars are in the sky: there are just to many possibilities.

That said, at least the universe works on a set of sane laws and orders, not like Dean's brain :yikes:

I'll bite...


>>But, for the time being here is a hint:
>>DL 12-13-02.
>>Hint #4A) My first hint was referencing a movie. (Wow, Elgin,
>>why don't you just tell them the answer!!

The release date of "DrumLine" movie was Dec 13, 2002


>>My second hint is, that Atlanta plays a big part in my theory, even more so the Georgia Dome itself!!!

The movie DrumLine is about a marching band at Atlanta A&T University.


>>Hint 3... [excerpt from email]
>>We can still smell suntan lotion and hear splashes in the
>>water, but the once distant drum beat calling our veteran and
>>rookie teams to register for the 2004 FRC is getting closer and
>>closer - can you hear it?
>>At the home offices we have been marching to the beat of this
>>drum throughout the ...

More drums... are FIRST personnel known for including hints like this in their communications???

So what do we do with drums... stack, bang, roll, collect, ???


Merle Yoder
Microelectronics Engineer
Phonon Corp.
571 Team Paragon

Drums? Interesting, but man, those things break easier than last years bins did!

you know whats funny? i remember watching drumline on the plane when we were flying back from the houston nationals.

He never said a drum like one you would play in a band. It could be something like a 55 gallon drum... These wont break easy, they can be rolled, and they can be stacked.

Ahh... I see... stupid me (hey, that rhymes!)

I acutally think a metal oil drum will be a kick-butt scoring device. Plus, they sound really industrial when hit with a hammer. ;)

I think Jay has hit the nail on the head. All the drum references make it pretty obvious (presuming it's not a red herring), but I doubt they're talking about musical drums. A 55-gallon drum, or one of similar shape but lesser size, seems like a great idea for a possible gamepiece. We shall see if this is true or not, but it seems like a possibility, at least. Of course, we've all seen misleading game hints, too... so this could be another distraction, or something with another meaning (remember ax^2+bx+c?). However, it's always something to watch out for...

Now... off to sketch some ideas for a drum-stacker :p

Ugh.

55-Gallon drums?

And I thought last year's game had horrible game pieces...

The problem with drums, they're VERY heavy, and hence very destructive to any robot not coated in titanium or something like that.

Secondly, you thought that last year was hard to move around? Even if it was smaller versions of 55 Gallon oil drums, I'd just build a little box with a scoop of some sort, and use that, cause I wouldn't bother stacking. It's simply not worth it, as shown last year.

I think last year's game was an experiment of sorts, and I don't think it went well. I doubt they'd do a game that at all resembled last year's game, save for how teams are setup (2v2 and whatnot).

...and you can take the top and bottom off and use them as tunnels.
You can fill thems with things or another robot.
You can put them on wheels and roll them around.
You can empty them and move the content to a scoring zone.

You can get plastic 55 gallon drums too.

:)

i dont remember what thread it was but someone made a good point of saying that the game for the past few years has reflected some part of the lego game. For and answer on the drum thing id try to find that thread and look at it as a possibility...


Just remember though this is FIRST....im a senior and every year ive been involved the game has been completely different....any thing can and probably will happen...

-Pat

The scariest part about all this is... it makes some sense...

I guess we'll all find out Jan 10th, ehh?

Until then... I guess I better start designing "drum mechanisms".

;)

Not even going to say anything! : )
 

http://industrial-drum-equipment.com/drums.htm
http://www.apachechemical.com/248/8659.htm?948
http://www.uscontainer.com/drums.html

WOW....
 

Wow, you can......... and ........have the ....... in the ...... and .....with them DRUMS!

Or you can also ...... with the ....size.... then ......with them DRUMS!
:yikes:

Re: WOW....
 

you read my mind

I don't care, as long as we get a spinning goal.

-Eddie "The Avid Toroid Terror Fan" McDonnell

Im still waiting for the first time we get to see the human players and the robots on the field at the same time

man vs machine

robots dragging human players across the field by the ankle, into the scoring zone

you get extra points if you stack the players

or if the players stack the robots.

Lets hope we don't have an Sentenials... ;)

yaknow all this talk about drums has made me think of a neat game object...
empty 1 gallon paint cans... with the wire handel attached...

Why empty?
;)

this defeats the purpose of the element of suprise and its detremental to FIRST i dont understand why people if they know anything would want to ruin the game. Just wait until Janurary, it's less than 3 months away and we're still not done the 2003 season.

Well they wouldent have to be empty, but I was just thinking that they would be somthing kinda dynamic... they roll in some orentations... stack in others, have a nice handel to get hung on different robot parts :yikes: <-- evil grin


and to Purplehaze, rember this is the rumor mill

There is a reason why this is in the RUMOR MILL....

I just want to be VERY clear on that!!

Nothing came from this thread, that anyone else couldn't have guessed with the provided informaton!

edit: And by the way, I was way off last year after a calculated guess as well!!! So I guess as you said, we will just have to wait till January 10th to see if I am correct (or way off again!!!)

THREE MORE MONTH OF WAITING..... NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Quick, someone start another controversial thread with 300+ posting.

I need some FIRST stuff to read...... (in deep withdrawal)

Wake up KenL say something good.

;) ;) ;)

While searching for information on something else (that I can't tell you about -heh heh heh!), I came across this item. Only in America can you buy your very own full-size inflatable F-16 aircraft blow-up doll! With matching blow-up Abrahms M1A1 tank inflatables! Finally, a purpose for that air compressor sitting in my garage, relatively unused. Is this a great country or what!!! :D

-dave

p.s. yes, I have already checked, and I can fit one in my back yard... Won't my kids be surprised!!! (and the neighbors even a little more scared)

THIS IS A GREAT COUNTRY! That is so awesome. And they even have Unimogs too. I'll park it in my driveway. I think the tank can sit in my lawn. And the F-16 can hang from the tree in my backyard. How much are these things anyway.

....I am imagining the possibilities for the 2004 Remote Kickoff or the Regional event- I like the inflatable arches, costumes, and mascots.
(must call for pricing!)
Thanks Dave. :)

Mabey Dean's Island can expand their military and airforce a little? ;)

So, the real question is, what would the person who designed last year's game be looking for that would lead him to inflatible F-16's? Does this mean that there will be an inflatable component to this year's game? Very interesting.

For an off-the-wall idea, maybe the playing field surface will be one of those moon-walk surfaces.

Matt

Or perhaps this year's game will be held in these in a parking lot instead of tents?

;)

Gotta love the rumor mill....

I will say in public that I doubt the drum guess.

Now that I have said that I do think we will have something that rolls (we're due)

I always liked those 3 ft balls from the 4v0 days.

But to add fuel to the idea of stacking. What if there was zone only your alliance was allowed to go in to stack (no intentional knock downs) Big drums would take time. If there are other ways to score then you decide which is better. Go for the 55 gal drum for 50 points or the 25 One gallon paint cans at 2 points each. Put the paint cans on shelves, like at Home depot......

I agree with Rich Wong. We need another 300 + thread somewhere

Later

Bring on the Clowns
 

Does anybody remember the last thread like this, someone spoke of inflatable punching clowns as scoring pieces. The problem with this is that a whole bunch of them would be expensive, so why not go to discount inflatable sites. Very interesting I do believe.

Here's another off the wall idea though...
In the FIRST email blast that was being referred to, (BTW, I don't remember seeing that one come across... :rolleyes: ) Notice the "red and blue totes just waiting to be filled". That doesn't necessarily mean the kit totes...
I liked the bins in 2003 ok, but I couldn't see using them 2 years in a row...
Actually, as far as the drum idea goes, You can find some smaller, plastic drums (kinda like the ones used in racing) that aren't very heavy at all.
Another note about the Blast email in question, When was it sent?
The 5 game committees did not meet and present until 9/1/03, and I doubt that FIRST would blast info on the game too early...
BTW Dave... you wouldn't happen to be attempting to side track us with those nice, shiny looking military inflatables, would you? :D
Actually, from some very reliable sources within FIRST (names won't be mentioned) It sounds like we know this much:

-2v2
-Auto mode
-Same Size/Shape field

KOTH is still up in the air, but I think it's fairly likely that it might make...some form of return...
I think the playing field surface will probably remain carpet, from what I've heard.
As far as field obstacles go, if you read the forum feedback form, FIRST states that they would try to keep the Field obstacle designs simpler and smaller for team reproduction purposes. This may mean that field obstacles will be in the 2004 game...
I wish I had gotten a little more information on the game design process this year. I would guess that FIRST gave a set of base guidelines to each of the 5 game committees, like field size/shape, 2v2, auto included, maybe KOTH included... or 2 basic scoring methods, etc.
The list could go on...
I actually had a prediction list that I put up in another thread...can't find it at the moment. But it had percentages of game attributes that were likely. 90% of the information came from my sources....
I think just determining a scoring object can tell us a good deal about the game. But doing that's the difficult part.
Ok, to finish off this post, here are some links to different kinds of plastic drums!

http://www.bestcontainers.com/plasti...ead-drums.html

http://www.bestcontainers.com/plasti...in-colors.html
(Note the Red and Blue colored drums....drool...)

http://www.labsafety.com/store/produ...&parent_id=904
(More red + blue drums...)

http://www.maxicontainer.com/plastic...stic_drums.htm

Oh, and BTW, Plastic Drums aren't always in a roll-like shape either. You can find rectangular, cube, and a few other shaped drums...

Keep your eyes out guys...

Re: Bring on the Clowns
 

YES. My advisor submitted the game idea to FIRST called 'Send In The Clowns'. A quick CD search yields ---

Is anybody else getting scared yet? This isn't the first time we've gotten a clue about next year's game having similarities to 'Send In The Clowns'.

I'm getting really scared......
Yet strangely excited...

*hops in to DeLorean* I just hope Dean doesn't have something to prevent me from time travelling to January....

I don't know how likely a moonwalk surface would be. How quickly do you think that or any other inflatable item would pop?

I mean, think about it, if any part of the robot has a sharp edge, bye bye inflatable stuff.

You make it sound as if the Stack Attack bins were all that durable. Cracking one of those is nearly as easy as popping an inflatable clown, in most cases..

I disagree, I think you'd probably be more likely to pop 20-30 inflatable items in a 2 minute round, whereas, you MIGHT only break 4 or 5, maximum 10 sterilite bins in a round.

...if a bin cracked, for the most part, it could still be used. A clown with a deep intestinal laceration isn't going to be of much use after a few moments.

Also -- those barrels are expensive.

Very true, unless of course FIRST wanted to go buy $5000 worth of duct tape to patch holes.

Bins didn't normall crack if you hit them, unless they were against another surface or being shoved under the bar. MOST items will crack if being shoved under a bar or pushed up against lexan or plywood or what have you. I don't thing much would change with inflatable game pieces.

what if they used custom made clowns with a kevlar outter layer

That's a pretty feasible solution for the popping, I suppose.

feasible to stop popping, but feasible as far as costs are concerned?

It helps negate the cost of buying more clowns.

Unless they were made like this.

The ONLY thing that won't be broken will be a $1,000,000 bill that the teams will have to collect to own. :yikes: :ahh:

I'm guessing that Dave was actually looking for THESE for a FIRST related event???

Anyways, as for the original thread topic.

YES!! Merle was correct on his guess of my prediction in THIS POST

Too many things I noticed lead to my belief of a drum of some sort being used in the game in 2004.

Hint 1 explained) The Movie Drumline; Release date 12-13-02, if you didn't catch that reference (a non sporting event, but a highly competitive event that just happens to have the Nationals take place at the Atlanta Dome in Georgia.) (Very similar to us this year!)

Hint 2 explained ) As stated before, the Georgia Dome itself, as a setting to the movie (And our new home for the Championship event this year as well)

Hint 3 explained) The e-mail from FIRST that had references to drums. (BTW, Sachiel7, I received this e-mail on Wed 8/20/2003 @ 9:09 PM from my team's main contact, so it had to be released from FIRST before that!)

As for the other reference from a member on another team sharing a thought with me at River Rage, I will let that person decide whether or not to share their thought with the rest of you as well. :D

Now as for Drums falling on robots or all the other guesses you all had for this prediction, I don't think that is correct.

As i said before, I think that the Drum or drums (55 gallon as guessed), will be stationary and we will have to grab something or somethings out of them and separate them somehow. Reaching and grabbing in a barrel will make you use the banner sensors to “see” the items inside with (retro reflective?) tape on them. Autonomous will help in the sense that it will be useful in the same way as this year, whereas it will work for you in the first bit of the round and help “score big” somehow with co-operation with that banner sensors. Who knows, maybe they will even throw in some other sensors this year (proximity, or others?)

Ok, so now everyone knows my official prediction, what do you think of it???

(Hey, it’s better than the usual “water” idea that gets thrown around every year!!!)


Oh, and if this idea is wrong again like my idea was last year, oh well!! :yikes: :ahh: :]

I dunno I like the ideas of using the drums for a playing object in the game but It hink that ur prediction as to how it would be used isnt going to fall out the way u planned. It just seems to me in all my lacke of experience that for FIRST to do something like looking in bins a sorting them would be marching tot he beat of a different DRUM. As to exacly what though I have no clu nor does ne body really though. However I deffinatly think it would be cool to do something else with the srums like maybe putting them in a chute of some sort or something I dunno All I know I am sure Dean's mean brain and all of the other people out their will definatly some up with soemthign even better then the year before like they always do.

Something to think about:

If I was on FIRST staff, I'd spend a lot of time messing with team's minds, and I'd thoroughly enjoy it.


I wonder how they feel... ;) :D

The BEAT of the Drums
 

I like your reasons for guessing that drums will be important, but I think it would be much more interesting to use musical drums than simply drums as containers. Using audio to help with autonomous would be fiarly economical and would add a huge new aspect to the game, though making the audible data useful without having too much interference would be rather difficult (imagine the huge numbers of fans screaming in the final match of Championships...)
Possibly using ultrasonic sensors to measure distance or having some sort of "drums" on the field that would produce ultrasonic or subsonic beats that you could only find and hunt down with sensors on your robot? Sounds fun and challenging to me.

Also about the game but not related to drums, I'm hoping they make the field more dynamic, with a large random element, like squirrels or small dogs or some other sort of animal, though PETA (the humane treatment of animals nuts, not the People for Eating Tasty Animals) would mug Dean if live animals were part of the game.

I think pauluffel has hit the nail (or drum) right on the head here.

They could be stationary, and thus allow any robot to determine its position with decent accuracy.

The only problem is that with the crowd and all, the noise could confuse the robots.

Thanks for the info on the Blast!
I guess I just missed it.
I think you're definitely on to something. I'm not sure in what sense, but drums do make sense. They haven't been used before (or at least, while i've been around). I kinda like the idea of drums. BUT...what other scoring object may be used???
Like you said, something may be stored in the drums. This is probably likely if they're stationary. Or, they may be "scoring areas", like getting objects in them counts for points. I'm not sure, but I think we've definitely got something going here.

Finding things in drums
 

It seems rather unlikely that FIRST would make people look in the drums for things. Although it certainly would be a challenge to build and program a robot like that, it may get a little boring in the stands watching a robot find things in barrels.

But as always, it will be difficult to tell what those guys/gals at FIRST will have in store for us this year.
:D

A good idea....
 

I over heard a really good idea today in one of out robotics workshop:

Student1: I know how to get big sponsor money for the FIRST Championship in GA- design a game with 2 liter Coke bottles!

Coca-cola is headquartered in Atlanta and they would love to see all those Coca-Cola bottles flying around and become the "official drink of FIRST."

Student2: yet and think of all that free cola we can drink in the pits!


HINT, HINT, FIRST and Coca-Cola.

:D

Re: A good idea....
 

Trivia: There is a coke bottling plant right across the river from FIRST HQ in Manchester, NH.

-Pat

Re: A good idea....
 

Actually, the president of Coca-Cola and his wife are fully funding a Georgia rookie team out of their pockets. They are involved so let's just wait and see. :D

Hrmm seems like Dean actually asked a "friend" of his from some unnamed soft drink company if he would be seeing the first symbol on their drink cans like coke has the olympic rings on theirs... the guy stood out of the crowd and gave a thumbs up.. but I dont think anything came of it.. this was at nats in 2001

Ahhh..the mystical FIRST bottled water. There have been various sightings at rare intervals.


Not drums, but hocky pucks.


Wetzel

Not hockey pucks, footballs.

Bowling pins? (Am I the only one who remembers that theory from years past?)

Matt

Re: A good idea....
 

The only problem with that is that the Georgia Dome (from the last I heard and read about) is a Pepsi Co. sponsored stadium!! Sounds odd with the Coca-Cola HQ being in the Dome's backyard and all, but just something to think about!!!

(Can someone verify this or disprove this fact, I read this a while ago when the details of Atlanta hosting FIRST came out and now I can't find any info on it anymore online)

Now it all makes sense!!!

Autonomous mode: the robots have to take the Pepsi Challenge.... use the banner sensors to pick out the 2-liter Pepsi bottle out of a row of 2-liter Coke bottles

We should have figured this out before now!

A wicked cool playing object to be used would be like HUGE hockey pucks rather then those wimpy small ones the humans play with. Think rather we could use like garbage can covers and play sort of a robot hockey with a twist no doubt or robot POGS! The absolute best game ever!( POGS that is not too sure about robot pogs it has never been done before..... yet)

Return of the puck from 99?

I wonder if the bots are allow to check and pick out fights? :D I would like to see two robots duking it out... :P

We're gonna need some Asimo clones then......

Asimo.... that would make an interesting game elements!

Imagine... FIRST robots vs. Asimos (Asimoes?).... no contest.

FIRST will be first.
:yikes:

Well if we're facing ASIMO clones.... definitely need a better traction.... <trys to start drawing FLUFFY's drive train and chassis :D :D> and a scooper to knock em on their backs for a second..... wait not gracious professionalism. AAWww shucks... maybe its the puck from 99 and ASIMO.... and bowling pins to add into the fun!

Well you can count on this.... autonomous period of some sort and 2 v. 2.

My vote still goes for a water hazard..:D

Gawd I love argument for argument's sake.

Maybe then the weight limit will go up too :D

How about a different size/shape limit? It would be interesting, especially if there was an area in the middle, such as a circle, that you could not put anything in. The dimension check box would have a corresponding hole cut in it, and a cylinder could slide through it to see if the bot was within specs.

Another idea is to go with a circular exterior limit or maybe something weird like an isosceles triangle. Or maybe even a 345 or scalene triangle, or a pentagon or ...................

They could also make people consider building unique bots by making something the game reward unusual shapes, ie a half circle bot might be able to get something like KOTH points by maneuvering into a scoring area not big enough for a conventional full size limit boxbot

I just attempted to do an ASCII drawing to demonstrate my above point. I just discovered I don't have the patience for ASCII art.

I would love to see changes like these.

a) did you just say "GAWD" !?

b) wouldn't you then run the risk of damaging said robot?

No you're all wrong! We're going to have to put rectangular prisms into circluar holes to score in the goals! ;) And of course the goals are above the water hazard. ;)


And yeah that would damage the bot.... :)

I have something else to add to my prediction!!

I believe that the autonomous mode in this year's game will take place at the END of the match!!

Just another thing I picked up on in a certain e-mail blast from FIRST.

:cool:

Yeah, that's something I was thinking they might do too.
The game must be set up so that this would be useful though.

i think we discussed this last year as well, if autonomous is at the END, it will be really hard to orient your bot to be successful with your code, and what would be the purpose of just having 4 robots on the field going crazy because they weren't in the right zone to complete their autonomous?

That was my concern the first time I heard the idea, but then someone noted that you could position your robot wherever you wanted it to start right before auto clicks on. I still think this may have some major problems, but FIRST may just try it...

I think FIRST might actually like that idea. With no good, accurate way to align your bot correctly, there's less of a reliance on dead reckoning. It would really emphasize the use of sensors for autonomous.

:) Not if they slid it in carefully, and even if it did hit it, that part would have to be relocated. The robot has to fit in it at rest position after all.

As to having autonomous at the end, nah. Let's have autonomous randomly occurring throughout the match!

you were mentioning drums earlier on in this post....it would be pretty cool to have the robots be giant wheels.....i don't know what they are called...maybe uniwheel....not a unicycle. anyways that would be pretty darn cool if a robot ended up like that. oh, and what if you had to do something like bowling??? ne ways...sorry for messing with your heads.....

oh visit redvsblue.com
very very funny.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

I don´t know about the game, but I BET there´s going to be a HUGE autonomous period, with difficult things to do.

All that because the C programming and it´s float points... ah.. I don´t know... calculating PI to measure distance between things, making exact calculations... there´s some point in that for sure...

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

but think about it... there are going to be a lot of rookie teams... who has never experienced FIRST... they may not even have a very good programming skill.... i think that the autonomous time period will be almost as same as last year...

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

You'd see a whole lot of teams with a dead reckoning code set to go straight forward for xx amount of seconds. Position yourself directly in front of your opponent...Need I say more? It's the easy, effective solution. It works. People will exploit that to no end, and perhaps justly so.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

ok I've read the entire thread (trying to stay away from my English 101 paper), here's my guess:

If drums are used I think they'll be stationary they will be stationary. Why? if you navigate through stationary bins not only do they act as a visual limitation but they force teams to get really creative with their autonomous programming

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

What about if they're stationary they're stationary they're stationary?
Heh, j/k :p
I'd have to agree. I don't think FIRST is going to go up and over the edge with auto mode this year. So, they'll make the game so that auto mode is a little more challenging for experienced teams.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

now you see what English does to a man

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Sorry Guys but I have to go with the good old rookie theory there arn't that many vet teams that can program *cough* Well *cough* in C let alone in auto cause I mean look at all the idle teams last year. Our team is working on it but with out controls for the Edu bot (We're cheap :D ) its kind of difficult getting it right. And as far as the Drums go yeah I think thats it cause it is different ("to the beat of a different drum")!

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Now all we have to do is figure out how where the drums will be in relation to the stairs and then what we will be having to do in autonomous at the end of the match.

Re: A good idea....
 

I think you're onto something
On the site, in the link that Dave gave us, there are inflatable soda cans...perhaps.
Oh, and also. I'm sure I've mentioned this to several of you, but what about conveyer belts??? They add a degree of difficulty to the field if they go opposite the direction you want to go, and havent been used before. I.e.
_______________________________
| END ZONE |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | B | | B | |
| | E | | E | |
| | L | | L | |
| | T | | T | |
| | | | | |
|____| |________| |_________| and thats half the field. Belt moves towards the top of this post.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

I disagree. To have high accuracy, you need to have highly accurate motors and sensors as well. For most cases, your right... the new robot controller is nearly (afraid to say this word for reprucussions) infinite for the typical needs of a team. However, designing systems will always limit you. For example, look at WildStang's StangPS and I believe some other teams had similar systems.. they had a system to automatically drive their robots to specific "checkpoints" during autonomous and know where they were. Yes, they used a microchip controller on top of the stamp controller, but this year... we all have the controller... it just depends on how long you'll spend in the design of systems to create input to the robot controller to be worked with. This year's controller is VERY powerful, but I don't think FIRST is going to force all teams to have to design pretty complicated systems such as the StangPS, at least not this year... I think they will give us at least this year to get settled in with the new language, and any curves they might throw into autonomous if the rumors of autonomous being at the end or middle are true, those already will encourage more designing. Anymore would be too much for this year. Just my thoughts, anyone be glad to pop in and tell me I'm wrong on something though lol.

Re: A good idea....
 

Also perhaps the conveyor belts are only on for part of the match.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

just glancing at the suppliers for this year, and something caught my eye, NYPRO is a sponser, they make custom molded plastic junk. maybe first designed its own object this year. also BEI which makes gyroscopes. they're a gold supplier this year, so maybe we'll get better gyros. this would make some sense if we were reaching into barrels where the operators cant see.
what I'm confused about is EBM sponsering on the platnum level, they make fans. why are they sponsoring... :confused:

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

such as custom made plastic bearing blocks, and drill motor mounts, like last year?

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

maybe, but that would hardly seem enough to become a platinum supplier. they might be making custom plastic oil bins, maybe shorter than normal.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Making molds and casting about a dozen parts for each of more than 900 teams isn't that cheap, and since I'm sure it's all donated, I'd bet that qualifies.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

HMMmmm... Sliding friction coefficient of dry ice and fans... Where have I seen this odd combination before... Yeah, I remember! It was four or five months ago when I was in this really long, boring MER meeting when I noticed that Dave Lavery (ever the clown) had built a hovercraft using a toy fan, two AA batteries, paper clips, and a Krispy Kreme donut. It looked like Dave was trying to deliver it to Pete Theisinger ("the goal"), across the conference table (I remember thinking that if I was Pete, I wouldn't want to eat that donut after having all of those skanky paper clips inserted into it). Well, it looked to me like there wasn't enough lift 'cause the Krispy Kreme only made it half way across the table before the Krispy Kremes maple-flavored goo stuck it to the conference table. I then distinctly remember Dave mumbling something about maple-flavored goo not sticking to dry ice. Well, I didn't think too much of it at the time (Dave is always doing stuff like this in meetings), but now I'm not too sure that Dave was just experimenting with the latest fad in mobility platforms for Mars exploration...

-Kevin

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

We will have to climb stairs and then balance on a 55 gallon drum that is on its' side. Bonus points if you are on top of drum when time runs out.
And there are only 2 drums in a 3 robot competition game.

Roll your drum to your scoring are for an additional bonus point. :)

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

I've been wanting to climb stairs for 4 years now and i'm still waiting :mad: ...Maybe this will be the year we all CLIMB to new hights!!!!! :D