Robot Positioning Devices

[austind27]

Does Any body know? Can you use a removable device to position your robot on the field prior to the beginning of autonomous mode? This would be used to make sure that the robot is lined up the same every time.

[scuba_sm]

I think it may depend on the kind of "device" you're talking about, they may have problems with anything that attaches to the walls/sides of the fields, even temporarily. This sounds a bit more like a question for the FIRST boards, but I can't really think of anything that would make them disallow it, as long as it doesn't break bins, tear carpet, or push on any of the pieces of the field. Interesting thought though....

hmm...

-S cubed

[David Kelly]

Originally posted by austind27
Does Any body know? Can you use a removable device to position your robot on the field prior to the beginning of autonomous mode? This would be used to make sure that the robot is lined up the same every time.

yes, i believe you can... we have always been able to do that in the past, i cant see why they wouldnt let us now

[austind27]

I asked FIRST that same question and just got a reply back from them they said:

"Because of the need to maintain schedule at the events, FIRST will not be able to allow templates or other guides to be used to position robots in the starting areas. The white tracking line will be centered in the middle of the starting area. The scoring zone carpet will meet the starting area carpet on a line perpendicular to the white tracking line. By using these two features as baselines, you should be able to position your robot with some degree of consistency by using guide marks on the robot and lining them up with these lines. "

I just thought if anybody out there was planning on using a device to help position there robot that this info would help them out a lot.

[Sachiel7]

I have another question, slightly related to this.
I know last year, we had a box that was outlined to the size limit (I think it was close) and this year, I was wondering if we have that.
See, our robot is around 36" wide, so we figured we could start it sideways and spin around, but, are we required to be positioned in that way? Can we start facing forward (36" wide x 30" long)?

[JVN]

In the past, you were required to start with the 30" side facing the field, but this year it seems like you can place your robot within ANY orientation so long as it remains in the grey carpeted starting area.

Hope this helps.

[galewind]

That information was not laid out in the field diagram, and I NEVER saw it in the rules manual. I would be VERY upset if we are forced to start with the 30" side facing forward. That is a very important detail to leave out. I'm ASSUMING the orientation doesn't matter.

Granted, we can get around it, but It'd be a waste of a second every match. And you know that every second counts, especially in the beginning.

[Mike Soukup]

Originally posted by JVN
In the past, you were required to start with the 30" side facing the field

This is absolutely not true. The past two years our robot was built with the wide dimension as our front & back. We started the match with the 36" part of our robot parallel to the driver's station. Actually we started both ways depending on our role that match.

The rules have always been that you had to fit in the box on the floor that FIRST designated with tape or marker. You could put the robot anywhere in the box in any orientation as long as the 5' side was vertical.

[Joe Ross]

Originally posted by JVN
In the past, you were required to start with the 30" side facing the field, but this year it seems like you can place your robot within ANY orientation so long as it remains in the grey carpeted starting area.

I never remember the 30" being required to face the field (this goes back to before there was a 30" dimension ). There was always a place marked on the field that your robot had to be behind, but it could be in any orientation (and the place was large enough that your robot could be at a diagonal).

For this year: http://jive.ilearning.com/thread.jsp...6&message=1277
http://jive.ilearning.com/thread.jsp...0&message=3519 etc.

edit: looks like Mike beat me to it.

[David Kelly]

Originally posted by JVN
In the past, you were required to start with the 30" side facing the field, but this year it seems like you can place your robot within ANY orientation so long as it remains in the grey carpeted starting area.

Hope this helps.

i didnt even know that was a rule FIRST never said anything to us about that during competitions. we have always oriented our robot in any way that we wanted.

[JVN]

Woops!
My Bad... I guess those 2 all nighters this weekend are catching up to me. I stand corrected.

Thanks for catching my mistake.