Reduced-space Demos?
 

Have you (or your team) ever had to do a driving demo in a space that is less than half the size of the field? If so, how did you do it? Please describe the situatuion briefly and tell what you did.

If you have not had to do something like this, please don't say "I would have done it this way." The reason for this request is that you were not there (in all probability) and there may have been technical details that are not included by someone who was and may have affected how it was done.

P.S. I will post my team's experience after some others have posted.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

A lot of our outreach events only alow us less than half the space than the field is for driving.

We usually just let some of the kids at our events play with the controls and stuff. Usually we don't activate the manipulator for them but just let thm play with the drive train. we have only had 2 semi-bad experinces.
1. girl started to accidentally ram ino some chairs becuase our holonomic omni drive was very hard to control.
2. We were stacking chairs with our tetra stacking robot and our tilt mechnaism screwed up, but we fixed that later.

We always had someone with their finger on the disable switch. I hope this helped.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

My team has gone to our state fair for the past two years. We have been given about half the size of the field and smaller to operate in. It was not difficult for us to operate in the half field area, however we always take our smallest robot with use and our most recently built robot. We were also given an area to operate in which was about 10 feet 20 feet. We had small fence sections to block off the area and had two team members standing outside of the fence to talk to people and keep little kids away from the fence. It is always a good idea to have your most responsible team members driving because injuring by-standers is never good.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Our team has done a demo with not as much space as we would like. The way we coped was by just showing off our driving, a small capping sequence, and our crab drive. We then parked Poseidon, and let them look up close as we answered questions and bragged about our achievments.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

All the time. We hold driver practice in a computer lab with tables lined with Apple flat screen monitors. Haven't clipped one yet. The key to any non-FIRST robot run is having a designated alert person on a disable switch.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

I'd be too scared to drive :ahh: That's a lot of hardware to risk breaking. Is there nowhere else for you to practice?

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

We had a demo at a car dealer that sponsored us in a space with just enough room for one goal. We managed to drive the robot, pick up a tetra, and cap the goal. Luckily we didn't screw up as there were huge glass windows!

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

We did a demo at our middle school about 2 weeks ago, we had a Quarter Sized field. We fit 1 small goal and an akwardly places Automatic Loading station. It was akward but we were able to drive around just fine. It was tight but we shouldn't need a half sized field to play on in the first place, actually come to think of it, it was pretty good practise for our drivers since they had to avoid scratching the stage behind us, as well as drive on a small field.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

My team has never done a demo with more than 1/4 of the field (becuase that's how much carpet we have). You just need to put the goal in the corner and load tetras from an opposing corner.

Another Experience:

Before last years robot was taken apart to build our little bot we were given an elevated carpet square thing measuring 16 feet by 16 feet. We had barriers around so no one got to close, and the mobile goal. We were a ball picker upper so we'd bring a bunch of balls, but a couple on the square, pick them up with the robot, then release them for the kids to shoot into the mobile goal. People like interactive demos :D.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Last week our teams driver and myself took the robot over to a cub scout day camp in Tampa and we had a strip of side walk (great for wearing down wheels) boarded on both sides by grass. He just drove the thing back and forward and handled the single tetra we brought, then we let the kids take and give the robot the tetra which worked out well with our automated griping manipulator.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

we do a demo in our caff at least once every cupple week.... we wint to one of our poncers places and we had at the most 30 by 10 space and 7 feet hiy seling ( so we couldent do anny arme stuff) but the drivers drove carfuly and we stacke a cupple tetras we dont go in hiy gear.... we get the job done

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

A really good way to do this is get a 25 ft serial cable and tether during the demo. Make sure that there is a small jumper between the tether port and a connector affixed to the robot so you don't damage the RC. While driving around, if the robot gets out of control just pull the tether and the robot will stop.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Agreed. 25' and 50' available here You could have that "small jumper" be a F-F adapter ($2) with the M-F cable.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

What we also did once when we didn't have tetra's and were in a small space, was we stacked chairs up.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

We had to pack 10 people, the robot, and the control board into a space about 7 feet deep and 12 wide. All we had room for was turning our turret and stacking two chairs.

Later that night, we worked in a larger, but more linear area. I was to drive the robot blind around a corner (and a copier), pick up a tetra in front of the school board meeting area (I could see the robot at this point), deliver it to them, and then drive in reverse, tracing my path the way a I came, and end up right back where I started (driving blind the last section).

Now that's parallel parking.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

56 has been to about 15 demos since nats we bring 1 goal 2 tetras and when we get there we just put tetras on a table and stack then let who ever wants to drive the bot drive it, when visiting the pre-k we found a girl that was able to drive the bot good enough for us to step away from the control it was pretty funny. it seems kids really dont seem to care about us showing them the bot they like to drive soo we give them what they want. and most of our demos have been in a small areasoo limit what you bring and it makes things easier.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Our team has done demos in small areas. It is not easily done with our competition robots. So we developed CASEY (Community Awareness of Science and Education Year-round). You may have seen CASEY near the GM tent at the Competition. CASEY was built with spare parts (you get a lot after nine years in FIRST) and was designed to be a SHOBOT...to entertain. Two if the nice features are that we have are a Speed Switch that will change to program to slow the robot down to half speed...nice for small children. The other is a Kill switch that will shut down the robot when pushed.

The other day CASEY was out of service so we took the HOTBOT to a school in Detroit for a demonstration. We noticed that after you did what the competition bot was designed to do it became boring. With CASEY the kids can easily drive it (and it was designed with wheels that could be run on any surface) and they love to get the balloons that HOT Team members blow up and twist.

We do not take the HOTBOT out much anymore...so space is not much of an issue.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

We had a mulit-robot demo at MARM last month in a lecture room at Rutgers. The playing field was about 20' x 15', with two goals. The teams ran informal demos and let people try their hands at driving, running one robot at a time mostly.

One thing which we will do the next time is have channel switches to allow running two robots with radios; tethers are okay, but radios are better. We didn't have any incidents, but a master emergency stop would be a good thing to have, at least for peace of mind.

Team 103 did a lot of demos at the SBS Conference last year, too. There, we drove the robot all over the exhibition hall, gave driving lessons for attendees (everyone got a robot drivers license) and held a drag race with SICO (guess who won). No incidents other than a 6 yr old trying to drive the robot through a table, but an e-stop would have saved some anxiety. The key in an open area like that is to have people watching and anticipating to avoid incidents.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

when we found out team 365 had a switch bharat from 25 and myself went and switched all the channel we did have 5 robots running at one point then they all capped corey for team 25 with the robots.

so if you want to run more than 1 bot at a time be sure you can switch channels, tethers arent the best.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Whenever we do demos without much floor space, we usually have one game piece and one goal. We'll also bring cones to set up an obstacle course so people can try maneuvering the robot around on the floor. We have a dongle that plugs into the competition port on the OI that will allow the channel to be changed, auto mode to be enabled/disabled and robot control enabled/disabled. We'll usually have a MOE member at the secondary controller station or right behind the drivers ready to switch the disable switch on the controller in case of an unsafe condition.

When the motors get hot, we'll open the access panels and let everyone crowd around and we give a tour of the inside of the robot. People really like to see motors, wires, and other electrical-type stuff inside a robot even if they don't fully understand what it is. It looks high-tech and exciting.

<edit>The dongles are usually pretty popular with teams, and they aren't difficult to make. For help making one, the best resource is CDID: The Lucas (Brian Lucas). He is a MOE Alum turn electrical mentor that helped make a bunch. I didn't ask him if I could use him as a resource, but it should be cool. :cool: </edit>

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Whenever we demo the robot it is usually in a small room. So before alot of people get there we do a few practice runs and test the limits of the robot in the room, like 360's and taking the arm full up and out, if the celling is high enough. Once we figure out what we can and can't do we have a few team members stand in various places to protect spectators and shut off the robot if something happens. It is very important to have spotters in small areas when doing a demo.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Team 716 has done many demos with reduced space.

Having led several demos, I find that my main concern is the safety of the audience members while a kid (or an adult) is driving. The first presentation I ever did was for an elementary school in Pine Plains, NY (we were making a presentation about robotics in the hope that we could start a lego team there). As the kids were coming in, we handed out different color question marks (our logo), and whoever got a certain color could come up and drive. We were presenting in a school gym, and the kids were sitting on bleachers, and others were on the floor. As kids were driving, there were several times when I had to grab the joysticks to prevent the robot from crashing into audience members who were sitting on the floor or in the very first row of bleachers. Although we also have a dongle (and I am always ready to flip the switch), I wish that there were a better way to keep spectators safe. With a dongle, you may hit the switch too late, or the robot may continue to move with momentum.

At another demo I did, we had our robot at a Tri-State business expo, and were basically trying to spread community awareness about our team - we werent trying to solicit for donations as much as we were trying to get publicity. We brought a mini-bar from the 2004 game, and we demonstrated how the robot could hang on the bar. Personally, I like the 2004 robot/game the best for demonstration, because hanging off the bar is a pretty cool feat to watch, plus a reduced size version of the bar can easily be built. It doesn't take up much room, and it is very attention-grabbing. However, even with this reduced-space setup, I was still concerned for the safety of the crowd. Even though we had experienced drivers, the crowd was not as likely to make good decisions about maintaining a safe distance. Because the robot was in the aisle, it would not allow people to pass by very easily. I also think that the audience would have felt safer if there had been some sort of a barrier. Therefore, I have the following solution:

Build a "portable field barrier" that would serve as a boundary for the robot-driving area. The field would look similar to the basic fence that surrounds a FIRST playing field, except made from lower cost materials, such as plywood. Build it so that the pieces of it are segmented - so that you could assemble/dissasemble it with ease, and it would be stored in a small area. You could also assemble it as large/small as you want to, and in any shape so that it would be adaptable to the type of presentation you are doing and how much space it requires or is allowed. The benefits of this type of field setup are numerous - the audience feels more comfortable with the robot, and they are safer.

My team has not built anything like this yet, but it seems like it would be a good idea. Maybe your team can give it a try, and see how it works out. Hope this helped.

-- Jaine

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

One word of caution: if you have a very tall robot, be very careful about going up high in small spaces. In high school, we ran a couple of demos using our 2001 robot, which was about 13 feet tall, and very unstable. The first time we used it, we were using it to pick up a garbage can, and tipped the robot over, leaving a big black mark about 10 feet up on the wall. The second time, we almost tipped the robot over on top of a small child :ahh: Needless to say, that was the last time we ever used that robot for demonstration purposes.

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

Well, here's my story that I promised, but before I start, 330 was doing a small space demo around the time I posted. Here goes:

We do a demo for our school every year, at the "Night of Excellence" (talent show with displays in the back). To do this, we have to run on the stage, which has some areas that the robot must not go into. Effectively, we only have about 20' by 10', but the width varies. The plan for this demo: run robot, show a match video, run robot some more, exit in a hurry. Unfortunately, the video was not cued properly and could not be run, so we ran the robot instead.

Last weekend, our church (all the team members go to the same church, which also runs our school) wanted us to do a demo at all four services. Bear in mind that the stage is the same as above, but now we have to dodge the worship team's equipment. And, we have a very strict timetable for moving BeachBot onto the stage from the wings and back to the wings. The plan this time: someone introduces the team, then two people tag-team to tell everyone about the robot while a slide show is played. At certain times, BeachBot caps one or more tetras. Everything went like clockwork, other than the occasional dropped tetra, which was picked up again.

Having videos certainly helps...

To those who do demos in tiny spaces: congratulations!

Re: Reduced-space Demos?
 

We have had to do a few small scall demos. When weve done them, weve typically had the robot on display, but not driving. We had a display board or two, trophies, and a laptop either playing a highlight reel or our animation. We have our students answer the questions and whatnot in the remaining space. And of course we have a place to put brochures, spare buttons, trading cards, and other things they can take with them.