Thread: 2004 Game
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Unread 16-04-2003, 04:06
DougHogg DougHogg is offline
Robot-A-Holic
FRC #0980 (The ThunderBots)
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Rookie Year: 2002
Location: S. California
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Quote:
Originally posted by sevisehda
I used to be in the robot-basketball club. But do you really think FIRST wants the headline to read "robots play basketball"? The game would have to be changed amlot to, will there be a shot clock? what about out of bounds? is there goaltending? what will happen to the ball after a shot is made? Trying to mod a sport to play would be a disaster and wouldn't even look like original sport when finsihed.
I agree. I would take a different approach: creating a FIRST competition from scratch and only using human sports for inspiration. The idea is to make our competitions friendly to TV and Video audiences, which among other things, would help our fundraising efforts when we present a video of FIRST competitions to a corporate executive.

All the really popular human sports: soccer, baseball, football, basketball and even lacrosse involve a single ball, and hockey has a single puck. Why? The ball (or puck) provides a focus for the game. Everyone including the cameraman knows where to look. It is spectator friendly because you don't have to look in 4 areas at once. Everytime I watch a video of a FIRST match, I miss some of the action because you can't see what every robot is doing. So what is the answer? We take a lesson from human sports and start with a single ball or playing object. People will intuitively understand the game, since they are used to a single ball being moved down field. True, one ball doesn't sound too exciting, so that is the challenge. Can we make an exciting FIRST competition with one ball? I don't know, but given all the examples in the sports world, I think it is worth considering.

No, a shot clock wouldn't work and neither would "out of bounds". We have to keep the action going, so we would want to have a net that rebounded the ball. To prevent goaltending, the goals could be a little higher than robots were allowed to be in their unfolded formation.

After a shot is made, the ball could roll down a shoot to a human player who would throw it back into play within so many seconds. (If QP were equal to the gap between the loser's score and the winner's, both teams would want to get the ball into the goal and also back into play as quickly as possible. See my earlier post on this idea.)

Since we are not modeling the game after basketball, let's add a soccer goal to make an alternative way for new teams to score. That goal would also channel the ball to the human player.

Let's add a ramp in the middle and a side bar as in this year's game and start with the ball sitting on the ramp. The first 15 seconds would be autonomous again.

Robots can pass a ball by "kicking" it or throwing it. Now we take a page from lacrosse: a robot cannot hide a ball inside itself. (In lacrosse, the players have a stick with a net and they aren't allowed to hold the ball in the net with their hands.) Instead they can carry the ball with a cup but it can't be more than (for examples sake) 2 inches deep. Now robot A has to angle its cup to carry the ball quickly, but robot B can bump A or hit A's arm and make the ball fall out.

So A passes the ball before B can bump him. A's partner can shoot a shot along the ground for 1 point or go for a basket in the hoop for 3 points. The ball then goes to a human player who throws the ball to B. B tries to get over a midfield ramp to get to the opponent's goals.

A is waiting and pushes B back down the ramp. A's partner goes under the bar and A passes the ball to him.

Hey, it needs polishing for sure, but one thing for sure, all cameras would be on the ball, and there would be a lot of robot interaction, passing, goal blocking, shot blocking, etc. I think it could be really cool.
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FIRST Team 980, The ThunderBots
2002: S. California Rookie All Stars
2004: S. California: Regional Champion,
Championship Event: Galileo 2nd seed,
IRI: Competition Winner, Cal Games: Competition Winner
2005: Arizona: 1st seed
Silicon Valley: Regional Champion (Thanks Teams 254 and 22)
S. California: Regional Runners Up (Thanks Teams 22 and 968)

Last edited by DougHogg : 16-04-2003 at 04:13.
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