Re: 2012 Game?
 

Over in one of the joke threads, someone mentioned that 2012 has been designated the Alan Turing Centenary. That would be a good theme for a game. Infinitely long paper tapes/loops of carpet on rollers to simulate the theoretical turing machine? Seems like a likely topic, given the S and T in FIRST.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

Football. Enough said.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

Between all the water and ship related hints and the fact that 2012 is the anniversary of the titanic sinking, I wouldn't be surprised if the game involved avoiding "icebergs" or pushing "icebergs" around as a mobile obstacle.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

So I just checked bills blog and read the new post. This passage give me some ideas.

"Plan now, how will your team handle bad weather, unexpected power outages, cold and flu season, delayed shipments and anything else that might crop up during build season?"

I think this supports the claims that it will be titanic themed. The whole bad weather and unexpected obstacles seems to hint towards icebergs.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

Nope. If you remember the storms in the Northeast back in February 2003, those delayed shipping by two days (teams couldn't get to their robots). The next year, KOP snafus caused another 2-day delay.

FIRST hasn't delayed ship date/bag date since then. Weather? Just get it in the transportation device. Power out? Same. Disease strikes team members? Sorry, but the time out of the lab might do them good. Ship anyway. AndyMark hits a supplier backlog? Work through it.

In other words: Plan for build delays to happen and develop contingency plans. The robot goes in the bag on Bag Day, and not after.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

And a lot of us in the northeast got hit with a snowstorm on Halloween weekend, and parts of CT got really slammed - we lost 8 days of school. From the way things look, going to be a long and snowy winter, and Bill probably wants to get that argument out of the way early.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

A few more anniversaries in 2012:

1842 - Doppler Effect -> Kinect related?
1912 - Continental Drift -> Moving field parts?
1912 - X-Ray Diffraction ->Kinect related?
1942 - First nuclear reactor built -> This could be fun:D
1952 - Polio vaccine
1972 - Prozac -> Depressed Minibots?

Re: 2012 Game?
 

people depressed about more minibots? :p

I just want a unique game this year. Something more interesting and challenging than a redo of a previous year's game.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

like maybe a unified game manipulator (not like the lunacy wheels of death) and then you get into some really cool designs to manipulate it to scoring points... idk how the new minibot idea would fit in[/quote]



that would be awesome but it could be football and the minibot could be the football :ahh:

Re: 2012 Game?
 

I enjoy this idea :D

Re: 2012 Game?
 

Combined with the Turing year, we could have something celebrating either the Dawn of Nuclear Power or the Dawn of Computing.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

If there were points awarded based on the distruction of the minibot, then I am sure many teams would come up with EXCELLENT solutions, and score many points.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

Haven't some hints already been dropped at BB? Apparently there's an official list of field parts (http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...me-hint-1.html)

Also, this year is going to be the heaviest field since they began. Bowling balls may or may not be included...

Re: 2012 Game?
 

I personally have used 3 Kinects in the same area for 3D imaging (playing with the Microsoft API) and just generally testing different features of the Kinect with a large number in a small area and I ran into very little issues with things like skeleton tracking.

Lighting was an issue, though. If there was not enough ambient light the skeleton would tend to do some crazy things. When one part of your body is no longer visible it sort of "guesses" and starts to seem as if you are flailing your arm around.

As for a use on the robot, I can't see it happening. They are EXTREMELY fragile. If they are used, they will definitely need to be protected.

Re: 2012 Game?
 

I believe there is also a problem with interfacing with the cRIO. IIRC, the only way to use it is with a Linux or Windows 7 computer.