An Exercise: Pros and Cons Of A Water Game

[JaneYoung]

Just for fun - let's list pros and cons of a FIRST water game challenge. If other threads have been created for the purpose of listing the pros and cons, please share the links so we can explore those posts. The water can be any part of the game challenge in this thread.

Please use this thread for listing and feel free to give examples to support the pro or con. This is not intended to create arguments or drama, it is intended to create a list of pros and cons, period. Veterans and rookies, please feel free to participate.

[Mr. Odlies]

Pro:
kill other robots with water!

Con:
water + electrons = angry robot drivers.

[Cory]

pros: none

cons: everything about water.



I truly don't understand the fascination with a water game. It doesn't interest me at all.

[Pavan Dave]

Originally Posted by Cory

pros: none
I truly don't understand the fascination with a water game. It doesn't interest me at all.

ditto...

there is a water game called MATE.... people who want a water game should ask their team leads to drop out of FIRST for a year, and do MATE...than choose if they want to do one or the other or even both in the future... that should get water out of many people's systems.

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by Pavan

ditto...

there is a water game called MATE.... people who want a water game should ask their team leads to drop out of FIRST for a year, and do MATE...than choose if they want to do one or the other or even both in the future... that should get water out of many people's systems.

There is also NURC put on by APASE
www.h2orobots.org

We have both land and water based robots for 5 years....can't get it out of our system. We did MATE for three of them, couldn't get enough so we made our own. Let me know if you have a cure........

[Squab]

Pros: no one will be thirsty
Cons: water and electronics dont go together that well

[keen101]

The Pros of such a game would be increased thinking, and more creative designs.


The cons are obvious. One of which would be the transformation of all the regional arenas into "water arenas". I don't think that would go over to well with DU replacing their Ice Ring with water.

[N7UJJ]

Pro: No longer driving, you're flying: three dimensional field
Can be cheap: http://nventivity.com/ROVIAB.html

Con: Finding a team to compete against

[falconmaster]

Maybe we can use Sea world for a venue!

[MiniNerd24]

That would be awesome!
I've never been there and we get to show off robots that swim. And the robots might later be able to swim with animals too. (This is for all you enviromentalists out there.)

[JaneYoung]

Thank you for your posts with your pros and cons!

I tend to try to make order out of chaos. When posts are made about a water game, the suggestion is made but there is usually nothing of any substance to follow that suggestion. It has happened enough times that I wanted to try to get a better grasp of it. My initial thinking is that one cannot move from the land robots to water robots just like that. Experience and opinions have been shared in this thread and I think they have been beneficial in helping us understand the similarities and the differences regarding a water game.

One area that has not been talked about and I wonder about is suppliers. Would that change? If yes, how would that impact? What are those pros and cons as we know FIRST now?

Yes, there are other programs as has been discussed in this thread. What I would like to understand is that if a water game can be done, I don't think it is just that simple. When one makes a suggestion, he/she should try to look at the whole picture as much as he/she can see and then research and learn more about it. I think it goes further than a venue change.

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Thank you for your posts with your pros and cons!

I tend to try to make order out of chaos. When posts are made about a water game, the suggestion is made but there is usually nothing of any substance to follow that suggestion. It has happened enough times that I wanted to try to get a better grasp of it. My initial thinking is that one cannot move from the land robots to water robots just like that. Experience and opinions have been shared in this thread and I think they have been beneficial in helping us understand the similarities and the differences regarding a water game.

One area that has not been talked about and I wonder about is suppliers. Would that change? If yes, how would that impact? What are those pros and cons as we know FIRST now?

Yes, there are other programs as has been discussed in this thread. What I would like to understand is that if a water game can be done, I don't think it is just that simple. When one makes a suggestion, he/she should try to look at the whole picture as much as he/she can see and then research and learn more about it. I think it goes further than a venue change.

I am so glad you asked that! There would be a whole new range of suppliers. There are many ocean engineering companies, oil industry and deep sea exploration as well as many research based oceanography institutes.
Here is a link on the MATE website that shows just some of the companies involved in the marine technologies.
http://www.marinetech.org/rov_compet...8/sponsors.php
When we contact some of them they are very willing to help us out, they are not saturated. Even though there is MATE and NURC events out there, it is no where near what FIRST is.

Thanks for bringing this thread up! I think the biggest obstacle is people overcoming their comfort zone and paradigm of what FIRST is. We do underwater robotics and we don't have nearly the support and connection as some of the FIRST teams have with their sponsors, yet we still find a way because we are not afraid. The FIRST model works well outside FIRST if you just give it chance. Doing the impossible, with not enough time, resources or money. With this attitude, we can make FIRST work in any environment in any venue and not let naysayers stop us. There is a quote, I don't know who said it, but it is great. "Those who say it can't be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it!"
Take care Jane!!

Are you thinking about Joining us in June for the NURC competition?
www.h2orobots.org

[MiniNerd24]

Hi as it so happens I have talked about this on a different thread just recently, but enough blabbing by me here are some pros and cons.

PRO: Awesome learning experience. Make cool submersible bot. And water bots are just plain cool.

CON: Lots of work (might not be able to do in 6 weeks). $Expensive$. Hard design( MUST BE WATER PROOF!).

Hows that for starters?

[lukevanoort]

Pro: Something different, with all new engineering challenges. This has the side-effect of somewhat leveling the playing field between veterans and rookies--the veterans have no previous designs to reuse.

Con: The only major con that I see involves arenas; I just don't see how FIRST could find 40-50 regional venues that have large tanks of water, pit space, and lots of seating.

[boy_scout72688]

Okay,

Being a volunteer I have several ideas running through my head about this so here it goes:

Pros: Very interesting robot designs, an all new type of challenge for all teams, new engineering challenges even the mentors may not know.

Cons: Lots of water needed and lots of insurance needed for venues, not enough innovation by F.I.R.S.T. to be able to secure the radio equipment safely.

I could go on, but there is a few ideas to through out there!