Re: an unusual observation
 

The patterns would be a little easier if they actually gave information on years before 2002. Heck, I'd really like them to create videos for every year's FRC competition, but I know they don't have the time. And besides that, I think they were origionally something more like an actually assembly line, but they found people were more exited about the sports aspect of it.

At any rate, the field stays about the same size, the robots need about the same maneuverability, and have the same constraints. One of my main questions is: Will there be a robocoach this year? (I'm hoping there won't)

Re: an unusual observation
 

I doubt there will.

Also if you look closer at Dave's post it indicates that there is no ball this year.

Re: an unusual observation
 

Pattern?

1992 - Circle - Balls
1993 - Circle - Balls
1994 - Circle - Balls
1995 - Circle - Balls
1996 - Circle - Balls
1997 - Circle - Tubes
1998 - Circle - Balls
1999 - Circle - Floppies
2000 - Circle - Balls
2001 - Circle - Balls
2002 - Circle - Balls
2003 - Square - Bins
2004 - Circle - Balls
2005 - Triangle - Tetras
2006 - Circle - Balls
2007 - Circle - Tubes
2008 - Circle - Balls


There is FIRST wiki, and normal wikipeida both have information on the games. Not videos, but still information. Also, FRC 45 has information from 1992.

Re: an unusual observation
 

I was referencing the more recent pattern...ball...other...ball...other...and so on. I think we should have a non-ball game this year, but simple logic says it could go either way.

Re: an unusual observation
 

by the above analysis, does a cone get classified as a trianlge or a cirlce?

Re: an unusual observation
 

It's triangle, circle, square from the side, top, bottom, respectively.

Re: an unusual observation
 

Perhaps they'll use hemispheres.
I'm starting to wonder who actually manufactures their gamepeices.

Re: an unusual observation
 

I actually figured this years game would look a lot like what the VEX game ended up being with several sizes of boxes.

Re: an unusual observation
 

While I'd doubt they'd choose the traffic cone as an object ... it would be cool.:cool:

And since Dave has decided to post here, I guess it's now officially red herring season :eek:

Let the speculation begin

Re: an unusual observation
 

Now that you mention it, a fish-shaped object would be fun. How about a modification of that game where you have a wooden fish on a stick and have to flip in and guide it through the hole in the stick? To make the robot less jerky, the floor could be made of moving sidewalks (or rather, moving carpets)

EDIT:
as far as boxes go, having to build a staircase might be fun. Heck, we could use a giant slinky as a main gamepiece!

I'm sure this coming year's competition will be quite different from the last, but I'm not sure how they can make it wildly different from the previous years. Unless they put a lazy suzan type table in the center. Ahah! We could shoot balls at targets along the perimeter. Considering they're playing with floor textures in FTC, we might have some slippery spots (and maybe even a hill we have to pass over where it won't work if we don't have enough momentum). Centrifugal force would certainly be fun, but I suppose we can't play with magnets too much if we plan to bring laptops (the cRIO flash memory would be fine as long as the magnets did not induce excessive voltage, which would be fairly unlikely. The only thing we'd have to worry about is eddy currents from all the aluminum in the robots.

Any more ideas for water games? (Let's aim to make Chief Delphi a respected place for finding competition ideas)

Re: an unusual observation
 

Wooden fish, wouldn't it be better to have live fish? (water game!)

Re: an unusual observation
 

Have you ever checked out the FRC Game Design forum here in ChiefDelphi?

This is one of the threads.

Re: an unusual observation
 

I can't believe that these two phrases can be put together.:p

Very nice.

Re: an unusual observation
 

I disagree -- cones are relatively cheap, lightweight, can take a beating, and are usually nice and bright so they can be incorporated into vision recognition. Plus they come in many sizes, and there are even very small sports cones that mark off a soccer or frisbee field. I think they would be pretty difficult to pick up too because some of them are fairly squishy.

What if the game was like Driver's Ed, where the bots could parallel park, change lanes, etc...think of the possibilities that could mimic learning how to drive on the road!

Re: an unusual observation
 

Better (or worse) still, there are different shapes. There are the traditional cones, the pillars, the road barrels (2+ sizes), the flat soccer cones, collapsing cones (which would be really hard to handle due to being super squishy)...