"The 24" - Off-season Idea

[Infernum3259]

This sounds like a wonderful idea! Hardcore robo for 24 hours straight!!! Im down!

[Ninja_Bait]

I've done something similar but with an entrepreneurial/business theme. I would love doing a competition that combines endurance, speed and engineer, such as one that involves building a 120-lb, 5-ft tall robot in six weeks.



Seriously, though, this would be great with one of the smaller robot competitions like VEX or Tetrix.

[Tmaxxrox97]

Originally Posted by MDAWG25

I, for one, would personally drive a robot 24 hours.

*I have programmed 22 hours straight before...

I would be down with driving for that long.
It could be great driving practice... assuming I could actually remember what happened...

[dellagd]

Let me just preface this by saying that I'd love to do this and would be uup for it.

I feel like such an event wouldnt work because 1) There has to be people to run he field, and finding two for every job is hard, and 2) FRC is dangerous. People have to be aware of what there doing. If you forget that your driver station is in autonomous, and you think its in teleop (an easy thing to do awake), who knows, your robot could run over someone with its auton routine. Mistakes would happen. Especially with the high climbing this year, I'd be afraid being around tired (Which has been show to have quite paralyzing effects, like with tired vs drunk driving) people driving 120 pound robots at 12 fps around me.

[rtomp]

I think this would be amazing! Most of my best, most hilarious memories are from 12:00am to 4:00am You would defiantly need 3-4 sets of volunteers and referees though and maybe only let people into the pits at certain times

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by brrian27

That sounds pretty intense. A few suggestions:

-Like others said, some sort of sleeping area would be necessary. My team attended the Tempest N' Tampa offseason event at the University of Tampa a few years ago and instead of everyone going to hotels Friday night, each team had a taped off area in the hallway/rooms that served as a sleeping area. So teams brought air mattresses, sleeping bags, etc. Something like this gives teams flexibility in sleeping shifts and such.

-Definitely would need 3 or 4 shifts of volunteers.

-And to go a full 24 hours you would need a lot of matches and therefore a lot of teams.

Or you could have just 6 teams in a Frisbee-recycling 24 hour long match. Thus a real endurance test for the robots involved.

[A_Reed]

Originally Posted by Woolly

Or you could have just 6 teams in a Frisbee-recycling 24 hour long match. Thus a real endurance test for the robots involved.

Tag team style? Keep the gates open and let the teams cycle on and off for battery changes.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by A_Reed

Tag team style? Keep the gates open and let the teams cycle on and off for battery changes.

Right, but due to the dangers of being hit in the head with a Frisbee, what would have to happen is a pit area outside the gates that you drive your robot into, and to have your team enter that pit area, you have to hit a button disabling the robot.
If you let your battery go for too long, and it dies out on the field, your alliance has to take a 40-point foul to stop the match for 6 minutes to allow you to go take your robot off the field and change it.
Mechanical/Electronic failures would be devastating, much like in the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Maybe something like this should be an invitational thing for the Einstein winners and finalists.

[pfreivald]

This sounds exactly like the kind of thing I'd have been up for as a student but am not up for as a man with gray in his beard. It sounds like a great time, and would create some awesome memories...

...but from a safety standpoint, this has "bad idea" written all over it. From tired drivers to tired pit crews to tired robot-lifters, tired people get sloppy, sloppy people make mistakes, and mistakes with power tools and robots (and just, well, sharp and/or heavy things) get people hurt.

[ghostmachine360]

This would definitely require a LOT of planning within the requirements for the teams (in terms of safety especially); but this brings the necessity of strategy to a new level.

This could be the Comrades/Ironman event of the FRC offseasons. I'm still onboard.

[Sean Raia]

I don't think 24 hours of sleep deprivation is TOO much for most who are involved in FRC (exceptions apply for older mentors).
You want to feel like crap? Stay up for 20 hours straight, get 4 hours of sleep, and then wake up.
If someone is incapable of safely operating a tool/robot, it will show. A team can simply have someone else do it.

I would be concerned most about the irritability of everyone involved. Most competitions get MORE fun as the day progresses, this one would likely suffer the opposite effect. Unless it was managed so as to keep the atmosphere consistently energetic.

[joelg236]

Why does it have to be 24 hours straight? I love the idea of playing so many matches and doing so much work, but why couldn't you spread it over a few days? Maybe even a week-long event? I guess it might be tougher on people's schedules, but it would likely be easier on people (especially mentors and parents).

[wasayanwer97]

I would be so in for this.

It's probably not a GREAT idea (It's certainly crazy), but it is one of the most fun ones I've seen in a while.

Finding willing volunteers is going to be hard. 8-10 hours at a normal competition already takes its toll on people. I'd think we'd need a good 3-4 rotations at least for them to stay sane throughout.

As many others have pointed out, there should be some sort of available rest area. Make sure thee's some available source of caffeine too!

Maybe something like this will take off here in California.

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

I don't think 24 hours of sleep deprivation is TOO much for most who are involved in FRC (exceptions apply for older mentors).
You want to feel like crap? Stay up for 20 hours straight, get 4 hours of sleep, and then wake up.
If someone is incapable of safely operating a tool/robot, it will show. A team can simply have someone else do it.

In my extensive sleep-deprivation experience as a college student and subsequently an operations engineer with on-call duties, the first thing that goes is your judgement of whether you're able to safely continue. Usually the way you find out that someone is too tired is the near miss or the accident.

Since my #1 goal for the team every season is for every team member to end with the same number of fingers, toes, and eyes they started with, rogue autonomous robots seem to be magnetically attracted to me, and after seven years of on-call I discovered that sleep is no longer optional, I'm out.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by vhcook

Rogue autonomous robots seem to be magnetically attracted to me..

...and this is why the wireless enter key needs to be invented.