Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie_1930
Yesterday as I thought I jotted down notes about the game hint and here are the ideas I've gathered.
First I took a look at the key features of the mechanism shown, highlighted in the picture.
1 (RED) - These clips are seen, or at least appear to be similar to be, in numerous product, such as tables and canopies. In those products their purpose is to allow the height, or position, of the object to different predesignated positions.
2 (Blue) - The holes shown in my opinion suggest that the lexan piece will attach to another part of the field, assuming it is a structural part of the field.
3 (Green) - The rounded cut here has been the subject of much debate on this thread because many people view it to be a difficult thing to produce and therefore needs a specific purpose. It is my opinion that in the production of this piece a lexan sheet is laid out and much like a Christmas cookies are made they are cut into their seperate pieces, then the holes are drilled and the sides are folded up to produce the final product. Now looking back to the stamping of the pieces if you were to have that be a straight line you would end up with virtually the same piece, but by adding the curve you are able to stamp out more pieces from a singular sheet because now vertically they space of the piece has been almost compressed allowing for less waste and more product, it is simply a feature used to increase productivity.
4 (Yellow) - This protrusion seems like it must be significant to the part but again it is more for productivity than anything else. With the mind set that this attaches to something else the four hole all need to be there and in order to accommodate that the extra space is need. Although by cutting back in the outer sections it allows more pieces to be made from a single sheet of lexan, because the pieces fit together like a redundant puzzle.
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I have to disagree with most of your thoughts, although I cannot do so with much certainty. Logic for each follows below:
Red-I don't think that these clips look sturdy enough to support much weight and would have been more robust if they were to select height or position. However, they do look like pins I have seen to lock one pole inside another (with a 90 degree twist of the outer pole), so I think that they are most likely to allow this piece to attach to another yet be removed relatively easily (i.e. for moving the game pieces between events)
Blue - The holes are likely to attach to another game piece. If you put a 2x4 into this bracket, the holes on the side and the holes in the face of the lexan would be perfect for 4 drywall screws to hold the bracket to the wood. You could do something similar to aluminum box, or an electronic sensor. The position of the 4 holes would provide a sturdy connection. I also think that this is the reason for the tab on the lexan - the two hole on the face need to be far enough apart to give it strength to prevent rotation. This is similar to a pattern seen in joist brackets for decking and construction.
Green - If it were purely manufacturing, the tab on top could be duplicated in the shapre of the bottom to minimize cuts. The semi-circle shape seems appropriate for a ball so that it can travel above it on the railing. Even the side-holes are above the level of the semicircle cutout, suggesting to me that this is for clearance
Yellow - See above - I think that this is purely to get the holes far enough apart to make it structurally sound.
In addition, if the yellow piece is lexan, then it is not likely to have enough strength to stand a lot of abuse. If it is lexan, then it is likely either a piece that the robot will not interact with directly (a sensor holder), or it is off the playing field (part of a ramp for the human players to use to deliver game pieces to the field - someone earlier said Skee Ball). If it is a sensor holder on the field, my guess is that there is another piece that attaches to this one that has the real support device that will do the work of holding this track to the rest of the playing field (if it is indeed a track)
Several years ago, there was a game where the purple balls were released once a robot knocked a ball off of a post (if I read the description right) - could this be a track that contains balls that are released once the robot does something? Maybe one ball released per activity? The the lexan could hold the release mechanism/gate or something like that.