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Unread 05-01-2004, 18:59
DanL DanL is offline
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Re: Low Cost Field BOM

The key to figuring out the game is to look at the most random or unique pieces and figure out their uses... in my opinion, that would be the toilet flanges and the carriage bolts.

Now, first of all, what IS a toilet flange? A quick google search came up with this:

Now, there's two of them, plus the PVC pipe. The pipe probably means there's some kind of bar, but if that's the case, why include the toilet flange? In the LOW COST field, why not just drill 3" holes and insert the PVC pipe that way? I think the PVC isn't going to be used for a bar of some sorts. I don't think the flanges/associated PVC is going to serve the same purpose it did for the 2002 field (something to grab onto) because if its meant to be grabbed onto, PVC is going to break eventually. Like they did for 2002 (if my memory serves me correctly), if the piping was meant to be grabbed, it would be steel piping, but the steel piping is only 2" while the flanges are 3".

My guess takes us back to our childhoods: Merry-go-round. The toilet flanges and the PVC pipe act as the central rotating axle. Perhaps there's a ramp that the robots need to climb to get on top then somehow spin the platform? With the described central support axle, I think only 3 castors would be a reasonable amount of outside support for some spinnage. For a moving object, 3 castors is kinda unstable (especially if the object is so big it needs 5" castors), but if you have a central support, 3 castors seems like just the bare minimum needed.

Then there's the 12 pieces of 1-1/2" PVC piping... perhaps a merry-go-round/2002 goal hybrid?

All this speculation is making me dizzy and leaves me with one last question... with all this spinning, where are the frisbees on the bill of materials?


[EDIT]
Back to the 3-castor issue... the 2002 goal had 8 castors each. This shows that in the past, FIRST was concerned about the stability of the moving object. They even didn't just settle for 4 - they went the full nine-yards and did 8. The castors show that something's going to be moving, but the fact that there are only 3 seriously makes me doubt the object isn't going to be supported elsewhere. That and the merry-go-round idea could explain why there's so much plywood on the list.
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Dan L
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Last edited by DanL : 05-01-2004 at 19:13.
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