Unusual, potential game pieces

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Noudvanbrunscho

Maybe u can use the traffic cones to fence the old game pieces?

Originally Posted by TDav540

Well at least the recycling can you could repurpose

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

You know the track balls, yoga balls, and inner tubes can be deflated right?

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Why haven't you disassembled your tetras by now? Do you still do demonstrations with your 2005 robot?

I was being a bit overdramatic, but my point stands.
Thank you all for doubting my sense, friends. It's appreciated.

[Billfred]

FVC (yeah, with the V) used softballs in Hangin'-A-Round, the first year as a program. Bright yellow and about 3.75" diameter, I think those would be a great game piece for a pick-and-place game. Limit the robots to ejecting them less than five feet from the frame, and I think they'd stay safe.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by efoote868

I'm still in favor of a heavy game piece greatly changing a robot's dynamic. Most teams assume year in and year out that their robot will weigh 150ish lbs fully loaded, but if the game requires the robot to pick up and drop off 50-100 lbs of game items, drive trains will really require some thought, as well as manipulators.

Also the biggest crowd pleaser in recent game history was the bridges from 2012.
Heavy game object which can be un-scored + requirement to balance with game objects + robot v robot interactions would be awesome.

This years' game involved picking up and dropping off ~60 lbs. The problem with heavy objects is that the game looks less like a sport and more like a bunch of construction equipment.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

This years' game involved picking up and dropping off ~60 lbs. The problem with heavy objects is that the game looks less like a sport and more like a bunch of construction equipment.

Well, so does Megabot and I'm psyched for that...

[efoote868]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

This years' game involved picking up and dropping off ~60 lbs. The problem with heavy objects is that the game looks less like a sport and more like a bunch of construction equipment.

Wasn't including this year's game because for the most part it was 3v0 on a cramped field.

If the game object was a 45 lb plate slightly modified from the standard weight lifting, and robots could manipulate 2-3 of them at once...

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Please no more enormous, useless game objects.

What, you don't want to reserve parking for the team? No intra-team pickup soccer games (see: goalposts)? Not even donate 'em to the school proper for hazard marking after the offseasons?


Trust me, my family has 4 good-sized traffic cones in the garage, along with soccer cones. They're great for sports use if you need something VISIBLE--and they stack, so you get one single stack of all the cones...


*takes tongue out of cheek*

[Ginger Bread]

Soc em boppers, if you remember what those are.

[Darkseer54]

Originally Posted by Ginger Bread

Sock'em boppers, if you remember what those are.

They may be more fun than a pillow fight, but I have no idea how you would use them as a game piece besides using them as beach balls.

Side note: They changed the name to Socker Boppers now...

[IKE]

I how been toying with a game that would use a axis (think jack of ball and jacks). It would be 3 sticks/tubes bolted together.

I really like the symmetrical cylinder tube. As Wayne said. Lots of opportunities.

Homer buckets could make for a interesting object.

One parameter that IMO is easy for robot to manipulate. Tetras were great for that.

[Knufire]

The old FTC rolling goal tubes with some endcaps could be a decent game piece.

http://www.andymark.com/FTC-s/531.htm

[nuclearnerd]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

• the beach ball I had as a kid that had a weight to one side so it flew crazily (can't find anything similar online though)

OMG, I found it! The ball was called Oopee, and it was a giveaway from KFC of all places. The video is 80s-tastic too

[Jalerre]

• bucky balls (similar to the ones used in the Vex game "Toss Up" but larger)
• long thin plastic cylinders (very thin; think stick sized)
• something shaped like a figure 8
• something hourglass shaped
• some kind of object with moving pieces (not just compressible; I couldn't think of anything specific)
• tennis balls (those haven't been used in awhile, right? )

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by IKE

I how been toying with a game that would use a axis (think jack of ball and jacks). It would be 3 sticks/tubes bolted together.

Like a Czech hedgehog? Though, I wouldn't want it as a field barrier.

[gblake]

Imagining game object shapes might partially be an exercise in looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

Instead, imagining what the robots should be required to do with any object might bear more fruit.

Maybe physical keys need to be inserted in locks, and then (optionally?) moved precisely once in the lock.

Maybe optical patterns need to be read or obeyed or responded to at speeds too quick for humans to satisfy (in order to learn something about the rest of the field).

Maybe opposing robots need to compete to stay ahead in a zero-sum game that involves object orientations/locations, or involves continuously manipulating objects in more than one manner (lift one, twist one, throw one, weigh one, etc.),at several locations around the field?

At the least, combining thinking about what you do with the object, with thinking about the object's properties, is an important part of creating challenges.

Blake
PS: Lots of small objects can approximate a fluid.

[Brad Hanel]

Rubber Ducks