[FRC Blog] Kit Hints?

[Chris is me]

Some of this has been said before, sorry.

I don't think any guess that doesn't account for the length of the box is correct. There is no reason to put everything in a 5 foot long box just to mess with people. It's so much more of a pain to ship, move around, and bring home an odd sized box than a more normal sized box; they wouldn't make the box long for no reason. Though the baseball theory has some merit.

Fabric often comes in standard widths of 54 inches. A possibility is that the box contains a mandatory - and new - bumper fabric material. This would address the subjectivity in the rules of what bumper materials are allowed and eliminate the advantages "engineered" bumpers give. The odd thing here is that the box weighs more than I would expect rolls of fabric to weigh. I wouldn't be surprised if they found a really tough and slippery fabric, engineered to help avoid T-bones, and maybe that weighs more than normal.

I don't think it's an odd, rolled up floor / driving material (like Regolith) - it's pretty hard to tightly roll somewhat rigid coverings into a 3" box. Perhaps it's a vision target, but that seems like a stretch; it hasn't been done in the past and they have moved toward retro-reflective tape anyway.

5 feet is the robot's max height from many years. Five feet of stock of a mandatory component or piece of extrusion is plausible. Perhaps it's "like" minibots, but robot side.

[mrnoble]

By far the most reasonable explanation is a roll with two or more colors of fabric. Spooling fabric is the quickest, safest and most practicable way to package and ship large amounts of material. Six pounds, including the center roll and the box, is totally within reason.

It's been clear to me for a while that bumpers are an area of the competition where two problems are developing for FRC. One is the constant frustration and occasional danger that is caused by teams that come to competition with incomplete or insufficient bumpers. It is often the last thing that young teams consider in build season, and with the goal being to get all teams to pass inspection, I've seen questionable bumpers okayed for play. The other is teams that are using bumpers to gain advantage through materials and construction that augment the original purpose (protection). See this year's sailcloth experiments.

All that is to say I would not be at all surprised if bumpers were standardized, and even increased in size. Three pool noodle height, perhaps? That would also increase protection, as well as the visibility of the (larger) team numbers, both of which would be highly desirable. I'll bet that the light 29" box is also bumper material.

[mrnoble]

Jinx, Chris.

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

All that is to say I would not be at all surprised if bumpers were standardized, and even increased in size. Three pool noodle height, perhaps? That would also increase protection, as well as the visibility of the (larger) team numbers, both of which would be highly desirable. I'll bet that the light 29" box is also bumper material.

I could get behind these changes.

I, too, think standardized bumpers are by far the most plausible explanation.

[mrnoble]

This is enough information for me to scrap plans to buy fabric and noodles prior to build. It's also enough to convince me that this year's game, whatever else it may be, will include plenty of robot-to-robot contact.

[brandon.cottrell]

Originally Posted by dellagd

Therefore I have to conclude that it is for some reason special, so doubt about that. I'm not quite sure how special a pole can get, and I can't think of any "coating" that would make it special either. I doubt they'd do mini-bots again, that wouldn't make sense to reuse such a specific end game after only 4 years.

Interesting enough, innertubes were reused after only 3 years.

[RamZ]

To quote this thread:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=131453

-In the source code for the site, the word "Choice" in the title "FIRST Choice" is split into "Ch", "o", and "ice". The word "ice" being alone is the first real hint towards it being a hockey game.
view-source:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...5-kit-of-parts

Not sure if this means anything, it's definitely odd, here's the snippet in question:

<h3 align="left"><strong><em>FIRST</em>&nbsp;Ch</strong><strong>o</strong><strong>ice</strong></h3>

I don't see any purpose for this to be written other than to:

• Hint at an ice related game
• Watch us freak out on CD

Yeah, probably the latter.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

As much as I'd love to see some sort of baseball bat/hockey stick/minibot pole hybrid, I have a feeling that the box just holds bumper materials. Bumpers have become such an annoyance for most teams and an opportunity for the better teams to gain advantage over the past few years that I think FIRST may have just decided to standardize them.

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by brandon.cottrell

Interesting enough, innertubes were reused after only 3 years.

Yeah, true. Maybe a better number to use would have been after 3, since ideally no students from a 2007 team were on a 2011 team (07, 08, 09, 10), that's kinda what I was shooting for.

[notmattlythgoe]

My argument against the long box/tube being fabric for bumpers is FIRST hasn't been rolling the cloth that is given to the rookie teams each year. They fold it and put it in the rookie tote, so why would that change this year if they were giving it to everybody?

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

My argument against the long box/tube being fabric for bumpers is FIRST hasn't been rolling the cloth that is given to the rookie teams each year. They fold it and put it in the rookie tote, so why would that change this year if they were giving it to everybody?

It's a legitimate argument, but perhaps the reason is that the number of rookie teams is just a small fraction of the number of total teams. When a process scales up, it can be the case that alternative logistics is more efficient/cheaper. Fabric suppliers have logistics to produce orders for arbitrary lengths on rolls for shipping efficiently. For rookie only, perhaps FIRST ordered full bolts and did their own cutting/folding for a the smaller number of rookies.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

It's a legitimate argument, but perhaps the reason is that the number of rookie teams is just a small fraction of the number of total teams. When a process scales up, it can be the case that alternative logistics is more efficient/cheaper. Fabric suppliers have logistics to produce orders for arbitrary lengths on rolls for shipping efficiently. For rookie only, perhaps FIRST ordered full bolts and did their own cutting/folding for a the smaller number of rookies.

Its definitely possible. It just seems unlikely, to me, that FIRST would choose to give the items for the bumpers, given the fact that all of the items involved in making them are easily accessible to teams. Why give the items when FIRST can just say that a specific cloth is required for use on the bumpers.

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by RamZ

To quote this thread:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=131453


Not sure if this means anything, it's definitely odd, here's the snippet in question:



I don't see any purpose for this to be written other than to:

• Hint at an ice related game
• Watch us freak out on CD

Yeah, probably the latter.

I would guess it's just weird artifacts from a WYSIWYG editor that they use for blog posts.

[Monochron]

Figured I should throw in my prediction on "the long box" as well.

1. "Rods" with which to construct a goal or game piece
2. Linear motion construction pieces (thinking along the lines of this year's game lending itself to one)
3. Random metal pieces like rail. (Being that some random company donated a ton)

[Tem1514 Mentor]

The basic kit of parts sure looks pretty common to me with item D being the only mystery.

From the website(s);

2015 Kickoff Kits will consist of the following items for all teams (sizes and weights are approximate):

A) Tote: With all of donated items that we usually get like CIM's, wire, battery ends, heat shrink, two sided tape and so on.

B) Battery

C) Best guess this is the new roboRIO control system. (September FRC blog post)

D) The Mystery box of one set of items, collectively 3 in. x 3 in. x60 in., 6 lbs.
Just about anything but a good guess would be something game specific like game piece(s) or a tow trailer kit, may be a banner or table cloth. We will have to wait and see. The bag and tag items

2015 Kickoff Kits will include the following additional items for Rookie teams only:

E) Tote: with Battery Charger, Classmate Netbook, one Joystick, one Gamepad, USB Key to Image Classmate, Set of assorted pneumatic components (compressor, air tanks, fittings, tubing, valves, PTFE tape, pressure switch, gauge, and regulator)

F) Battery

Teams who did not opt out of the Drive Base Kit will also receive the following item:

G) AMU drive base