2006 game hints?

[Swampdude]

Usually around this time of year someone hears a rumor then Gary saw something he shouldn't have, but won't say. Then speculation begins as Dave has a field day spreading his little bits of confusing hints. I always have fun trying to tie it all together, but last year some people nailed the pyramid guesses, triple plays and 3 team alliances.
Well Dave has dropped some bombs already and we haven't put them together yet. So lets!

Twirling Batons?

No Fasteners? PLEASE DON'T!

If you look at this poll results you'll see dlavery only voted for the CMU cam, is it coming back?

Igus has been added to the list of 2006 kit suppliers. Their products primarily would support the need for extension/retraction. Which could be said for any game in the past, but at least more indicative of status quo.

Well that's all I've noticed lately, how about you? I'm sure a lot of you can take this pretty far down the road.

I'm going to speculate that we're picking up colored PVC batons (red, blue yellow) using the CMU and placing them somewhere a mechanism would need to extend to. But hopefully that no fastener thing is just to mess with us.

[Revolverx7]

Wow, that whole "no threaded fasteners" thing could be potentialy dangerous. I know that welding isn't a very strong point on my team and pinning everything could become a huge hastle. Hopefuly this is just a scare tactic to make us all think of new inovative ideas before they enforce inovation on us by making such a drastic rule change.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Revolverx7

Wow, that whole "no threaded fasteners" thing could be potentialy dangerous. I know that welding isn't a very strong point on my team and pinning everything could become a huge hastle. Hopefuly this is just a scare tactic to make us all think of new inovative ideas before they enforce inovation on us by making such a drastic rule change.

Yet it could just as easily be a warning to us, and a security blanket for Mr. Lavery, so he can turn around after kickoff when the QA is flooded with questions as to why the rule exists, and just say "I told you so." Nevertheless, it would be an interesting year for many teams when they have to figure out how to get everything to fit together properly...

[Petey]

A little bird told me that coding this year would be different.

(Actually, the proof of this is available if you know where to look. No, I won't tell you where.)

So expect to see an interesting autonomous goals with easier coding methods.


--Petey

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Petey

A little bird told me that coding this year would be different.

(Actually, the proof of this is available if you know where to look. No, I won't tell you where.)

So expect to see an interesting autonomous goals with easier coding methods.

--Petey

Whhaaaaat? Where did these guys come from?!?

[rees2001]

Dave, isn't it about time for the annual?

http://skydancersworldwide.com/galle...rs_gallery.asp

http://www.advertisingballoons.com/a...ane-marine.htm

[RoboMadi]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Whhaaaaat? Where did these guys come from?!?

WOW.................i'm amazed

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Whhaaaaat? Where did these guys come from?!?

Someone seems to have confused FRC and Robovation.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by ahecht

Someone seems to have confused FRC and Robovation.

According to their website, the CoreChart software is able to program Vex, the mini-controller, and the full-size controller. In this document they explain exactly how to program the full-size FRC controller with their software.

The CoreChart software looks like cool stuff for everyone (like me) who isn't a guru at line-coding programming. Finally, teams may be able to get autonomous working before ship date!

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Finally, teams may be able to get autonomous working before ship date!

Actually, I've been working on a simulation environment in LabVIEW to allow me to test autonomous code on the RC without requiring silly things like a robot or even real sensors - who needs that which you can simulate?

-Danny

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by texasdiaz

Actually, I've been working on a simulation environment in LabVIEW to allow me to test autonomous code on the RC without requiring silly things like a robot or even real sensors - who needs that which you can simulate?
-Danny

...Which you'll publish of course?? That would a a great use of LabView!


Back to speculation: IMHO the time machine was just a random remark based on the few posts above it.
The comment about batons and 'whatever's lying around the office' are significant. Just how is the question.
Also significant is the exchange, clearly planned (look at the posting times!) between a worker and a 'supervisor'. At least he doesn't have to build the 'bus shelter' - probably a good thing, too - but the 'viking death ship' (VDS) is clearly needed for next week (some kind of demo, proof of concept). It is obviously not an actual VDS, but when looked at it sure looks like something you'd name that.

What are the salient features of a VDS? Well, it is boat-like in appearance (long and narrow), maybe a sail-like object above, perhaps many openings on the sides (oars originally).

Hexagonal field would work well for alliances, and make the video easier than a wide narrow field.
An area of the field that is hidden from the view of the humans would be sooo cool, forcing more to push the CMU cam, which was disappointingly underused last year. Located in the center? Maybe a ramp to get up & in for some kind of bonus?
Also think about costs and ease of manufacture. Tetras can be cranked out quickly/easily/cheaply, as were balls, whatever they pick as the movable object, they will need a zillion in a hurry, without breaking the bank. PVC pipe sections with balls on the ends (like a barbell)?
Goals like a wastebasket?
I also like the concept of the bots resetting the field somehow, so start condition and end condition are the same.

Dave's just sitting there giggling at how way off, and how close, we all are. January 7 is coming soon, but not soon enough.

Don

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

What are the salient features of a [viking death ship].

Well, two that come to mind are that it's on fire and it has a corpse on-board <grin>.

-Kevin

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Kevin Watson

Well, two that come to mind are that it's on fire and it has a corpse on-board <grin>.

-Kevin

Now, if we consider the emphasis on safety, I'd have to say fire will not be part of the game, at least not on purpose.
As for the corpse, that truly has some interesting possibilities.

[Levin571]

seeing how Dave is an old fashioned kind of guy, I believe that this will be the reintroduction of "MAIZE CRAZE" and there will be tethers instead of radios and all the popcorn you can eat.

Or if i am going the wrong direction about this time travel thing, instead of going literally back in time, we will assume that the since Dave is a NASAite (or is it NASAian? I never get that right) the further we go away from earth, in theory time goes backwards (like if a tv emmision were to air here and someone went a few hundred trillion miles away from earth, he could watch it "live" in ten years) so what we must do is build robot that can fly so fast that it can catch a television news report with Dean Kamen still having a beard and Woody Flowers not wearing one of his imfamous student signed shirt. And if we still have time, we can watch the holy birth of JVN.

[Petey]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Whhaaaaat? Where did these guys come from?!?

Originally Posted by ahecht

Someone seems to have confused FRC and Robovation.

Or did they?

Originally Posted by artdutra04

The CoreChart software looks like cool stuff for everyone (like me) who isn't a guru at line-coding programming. Finally, teams may be able to get autonomous working before ship date!

Exactly.

Man, this is going to piss off so many of the hard core command line people. Egalitarian code! What nonsense!

--Petey