Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

Interesting... I never noticed that rule... that's what I get for focusing on dimensions and definitions. Thanks for clarifying :)

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

Tee,
The fields in Atlanta were placed over the plastic venue field covers as in the past. After years of use, the centers of the 4' x 4' plastic had sagged in the centers causing, among other things, balls to roll slightly different than fields placed on concrete floors. Anyone who tried to position a ball for autonomous knows the issue.

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

The Einstein field always seems to have minor field issues due to the fact it gets zero play time throughout the course of the weekend.

In 2008 the carpet bumps that they had covering the support pieces for the center wall weren’t secured down as well as they were on other fields and we literally sucked one into our drive train gearbox during a lap, causing our robot to become disabled. We literally had to back drive the gearboxes to pick the robot up off the field.

In 2009 it had been a long time since any of the robots on Einstein had played on unused regolith and it showed. It seemed like all the robots on Einstein, were handling much different (worse) than they had in the divisional finals.

It stinks if 469’s robot was in fact misfiring on Einstein due to field variations, but the one thing that is fair about Einstein is it’s the same field for all the contestants.

I think it would be interesting to give the teams that make Einstein a practice match while all the spectators are getting seated. This would allow teams to calibrate field specific items to the field where the Championship is going to be decided. I know things like lighting variations can mess with camera tracking and such (I wonder if anyone in 2006 had issues with this on Einstein).

Just a thought

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

Chris,
As you said the problem was the same for all teams and it did exist on the other fields as well. There just was not a fix that could be applied to correct the problem. We would have needed to pull the fields, lay down plywood and then re-lay the field. Not an option. Also it took a while to really figure out that there was a change and what the cause was.

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

This is a great idea! I *know* we would have been very happy to have been able to "tune" the ramps! :)

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

In 2007 we had camera tracking problems on Einstein because the lighting was so much brighter, we never scored once in auton ,even though we scored every time on Currie in the eliminations.

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

I remember someone on 1902 saying their issues with scoring in autonomous on Einstein weren't from the lighting changes. I wonder if there were multiple, unrelated issues, or if you guys simply have different hypotheses about why it occurred?

Re: Einstein Finals: Curie (469, 1114, 2041) vs. Newton (67, 177, 294)
 

Sean et al,
The lighting on the division fields is generally ambient from the dome with a little thrown in to keep the cameras happy. The Einstein is generally well lit with moving lights and studio/stage lighting. If it predominates with some natural lighting thrown in the color temperature of the lighting (and therefore the camera response) will be different than on the divisional fields. Except the year the dome was blacked out from a previous event.