my brain hurts. perhaps i should have waited until after Exam Week to start looking through Chief Delphi again.
anyways...
Dave. You're cruel.
especially with your most recent post.
moving along, i like the ideas everyone has come up with... so far, i agree with a lot of what everyone else has come up with, but i'd like to elaborate more and hopefully bring some new ideas to the table from what i've gathered from Dave's hints without echoing whats been said before.
First of all, snow or ice or anything of that nature is highly unlikely, especially for those of us who live in areas that dont have snow or ice, since we are completely unfamiliar with that phenomina (those of you who saw the Pink Team in Denver last year saw for yourselves) and do not have an abundant supply of it during the months of January and early February.... however, perhaps there is a slick surface that the robot will have to deal with that has a coefficient of friction similar to that of ice against metal or something to that extent. Also, apparently there will have to be shelter from something... perhaps something like confetti will be involved. Especially if it is like those little squishy packaging things (that i have no idea what their name is) which would be relatively easy to clean up (sweep it!)... You all have been alluding to the vision cameras being used and the chicken coop... maybe there is a tunnel of some sorts that the robot has to go through... yet the drivers cant see it because it is placed perpendicular to their point of view, therefore the human player or the use of the camera must aid in getting from one point to another. Maybe the game involves cooperation by all of the teams involved (there is no loser),
or maybe both sides of the field are NOT symmetric for once, giving each side a distinct advantage/disadvantage. nah.. that last one is too crazy, and its not based off of any hints. I dont even know what to think of the batons.... but quite frankly... i like the idea of not having fasteners or limiting fasteners on the final version of the robot (the one you ship and use for competition). even if we had last years game, we would most certainly have very different robots thanks to this rule. its not an impossible regulation... everyone just needs to think a little outside of the box and be more creative, not try to find loopholes or anything of that nature.
or maybe i'm just a crazy IB kid who's analyzing everything in far too much depth. ^^;
enjoy my 2 cents...