Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

First, I was wondering if rigolith is an actual material, or a named coined by FIRST because I found a few places that said rigolith is actual moon dust and rocks. Second, is there anyway of getting ahold of this material, whether it is sold somewhere or whether it can be made out of something.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

try "Glasliner FRP" there is a company selling it but i dont know if that is exactly what first will use.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

I don't think FIRST wants us to practice before regionals... anyway, I'm sure it's not available from Lowe's or Home Depot, and is probably quite expensive.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Actually, our local Home Depot carries Glasliner FRP (Longmont, CO). The stuff is used to line bathroom walls.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

It seems to me that rigolith is a coined phrase, as the actual material appears to be textured acrylic. It is easily obtainable through Midland Plastics also.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

hmmm..... thank you...

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

i m sure wants to FIRST wants us to practice before a regional...i mean the Virginia FIRST has a sponsor that will actually build a practice field

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

yes, but we're not all that lucky.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Kevin Ross told us at the Seattle area kickoff that it's available at Home Depot, for around $36 per 4' x 8' sheet. Making a whole practice field would probably blow the budget of even a fairly rich team, but if every team in an area buys a few sheets for their own initial practicing, you could put them all together for scrimmage.

He also told us that FIRST hasn't yet given out any information on how the sheets should be attached together -- he said they're still figuring that out. Duct tape is not the solution.

This is going to be a very interesting year. Good luck, all, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Wall liner paneling at home depot.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Has anyone found where teams can purchase the moon balls?

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=71036

more simply walmart

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Just wondering...i know it's not the thread to say this in but.. would Teflon sheets work just as good?

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

does anyone know the coefficient of friction for the floor? this would be really helpful...

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

well... asphault has a mu of about .12 coefficient so they said it's a 6th of that so maybe .02?

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Regolith is the surface of a rock. The actual flooring material is about $1000 for a full field. See if other teams can pitch in a few bucks and share it with them.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

for the friction coefficient wouldn't it be a combination of the coefficient of the wheels and the floor surface. not sure if im right but it makes sense in my head

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

coefficient of friction is .05 and .1 laterally if memory serves

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

From the Kit Of Parts Manual:

The tread material is Celcon M90, and has the following coefficients of friction on white, rippled fiberglass plastic sheet

Inline, static: 0.06
Inline, dynamic: 0.05
Transverse, static: 0.14
Transverse, dynamic: 0.10

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

what i think would be the best plan would be to just find the slickest floor you can find in your school/build area.

a few ideas we came up with

freshly waxed floor
woodshop floor, once you get sawdust on it, and sweep it up, boy that is like ice.
Ice Rink
Rollerina

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

What ice rink will let you take out your robot on it. On a simkilar note this bot will be hard to demo unless you bring some regolith to the demo.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

The best way to attach these panels is with an FRP adhesive and this would hold the edges down too. For a less "permanent" solution find some double sided acrylic sheet vinyl tape to just hold down the edges but be fore-warned these are sometimes brittle sheets.

-Mike AA

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Yeah, this stuff is very brittle and snaps easily, especially with how thin it is. If you do try to take it off of the floor, try keep it as straight as possible

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

FIRST wants you to know as much about the game as possible before you go to the regionals.

You don't have to build the entire field, but I very strongly encourage you to build portions of the field. Perhaps this years trailer,or get a sheet of the Glasliner FRP and practice in a 4x8 area. Also we have found it worthwhile to at least tape out the entire area on the gym floor and practice driving.

Good Luck.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

I wouldn't even think of doing that because that stuff goes for about $35 a sheet, so... talk to your finance person first!:cool:

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Can anyone confirm that this stuff is similar/the same?

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Actually its spelled regolith, and it is actually what the surface of the moon is covered in. Here is a short description of it from wikipedia: Regolith (Greek: "blanket rock") is a layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, some asteroids, and other planets. The term was first defined by George P. Merrill in 1897 who stated, "In places this covering is made up of material originating through rock-weathering or plant growth in situ. In other instances it is of fragmental and more or less decomposed matter drifted by wind, water or ice from other sources. This entire mantle of unconsolidated material, whatever its nature or origin, it is proposed to call the regolith."

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

Apparently Menards has the stuff on sale through the 18th for something like $24 for a 4'x8' sheet.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

FIRST is using 3 8'x50' rolls of the stuff, so if you can find where to get those I imagine they're significantly cheaper overall than buying a ton of 4'x8' sheets.

Re: Where can we buy or find out how to make the new floor, rigolith?
 

lol, we are gonna try to put it on our freshly waxed gym floor or our local skating rink, not exactly the same, but close to it