A Water Competition Next Year?!?!?!

[Yoel212]

Not likely,
The chances of there being a competition are slim and none.
Think of the possible damages to robots, and the trouble teams would have to go through to seal the components and make them watertight.

Then in the middle of a round BOOM
You blow a breaker

now you have to open your watertight casing and change the breaker and reseal it.

Nope, No water playing fields.

[Duke 13370]

*sigh* it's a nice thought, but i don't think it'll be a serious consideration for FIRST anytime in the next 10 years. There's just too many technical problems that come with water, namely the part with water turning the robot into a large paperweight, and the part with trying to have an arena to hold the competitions in.

I think we can all agree it would be cool, but even if only one team's robot dies to the water, that's one robot too many.

How long has this thread been around?

[Yoel212]

Way too long =)

[Joe Matt]

Welcome everyone to the Forum Tour with your gide JosephM!

'This type of topic is called the 'never ending story' topic, named after the movie. THIS THREAD WILL NEVER END. No matter how many reasons why it will/will not happen, newbies will always voice their opinions!'

[Michael R. Lee]

I design underwater robots for a living - how cool is that?

That's from Gary Dillard, a mentor, from S.P.A.M.....so looks like they'll have an ace up their sleeve... that an Eric Schreffler works at Perry Technologies too. They build underwater robots..... <shudders> Great ROvs powered by a Jones' gearbox.... <flees ot other ahead of the arena>

But anyway.... water + electricity = bad. And i think for one, we'd need either cables or a better controller. On top of that the weight limit either must go up or the game must be much similiar.

And ther is a underwater robotics competion called DEPTHCHARGE, saw it once on the Discovery channel. Not as big as FIRST but it looked cool. Don't know what happened to it though....

[fox46]

Actually, contrary to popular belief, 12V systems love the water. In fact, the proper way to break in a brushed motor is to immerse it in water, and run it for 10 minutes. (BTW I'm talking about low voltage DC systems) Some electric trolling motors for fishing boats are designed to fill with water because it dissapates heat better than air. The big problem though is when you get into sensitive electronics where you're working with minute currents, they are easily affected by the small amount of electricity that does get lost/shorted through the water. Solution: dip all the circuit boards in wax! The other downside is corrosion and rust. Solution: spray the connections and motors with silicone spray/grease/WD-40! Water by itself is unconductive- it's the ions and particles in the water that conduct electricity. Has anyone ever seen the Junkyard Wars episode where they built the electric submarines- (the first show they did with subs)? The one team's sub was completely filled with water, and it was running fine- if I remember correctly, they actually planned it that way, because of the above^^. Try it for yourself- take a fisherprice motor, and wire it up to a robot battery, then chuck it in a bathtub- even chuck the battery in! It's a sealed battery it'll survive.

[Mark Hamilton]

I've said this before, but I don't think water would be as large a technical hurdle as many people think. It would require a ruggedized controller, preferably with relays and speed controllers integrated, which was sealed water tight. Every wire coming in and out would then have it's own fuse to prevent a short taking out the controller. For safety reasons this would have to be FIRST provided. It's worth pointing out that water actually has fairly high resistance, and electricty always follows the path of least resistance ( should be the wires. The competition would definitly be a challenge, but if we were given a kit geared towards an aquatic game, it would be possible. I'm sure the logistical problems of actually running the competition, not to mention aquatic bots would cost a lot more money to build would make it an impossibility in the near future. There already are aquatic robot competitions, especially at the college level, and many are built with fewer resources then many teams have, but they are executed at a much smaller scale.

[Josh Siegel]

Now, I know this thread is a little old and I'm not bringing a whole lot new into it, but, the recent letter (I'll look for a copy to post) mentions waves in water and drums... A lot. So I'm thinking, oil comes in drums, oil and water don't mix, but oil floats on water. Bots might not mix with water, but maybe they could float? Could it have something do with a pseudyo-oil-spill? Just reading a little too deep, but thats where the imagination kicks in

edit: in the exitement I forgot to mention the new controller - does anyone else find it a little curious that the new controller for the edubot is highly sealed/tightly built? It seems to me that more support for pneumatic/hydraulic components and other water-resistant electronic-supplements is a little fishy (bad pun, I know..) It makes sense to my conspiracy oriented mind, anyway.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Josh Siegel

Now, I know this thread is a little old and I'm not bringing a whole lot new into it, but, the recent letter (I'll look for a copy to post) mentions waves in water and drums... A lot. So I'm thinking, oil comes in drums, oil and water don't mix, but oil floats on water. Bots might not mix with water, but maybe they could float? Could it have something do with a pseudyo-oil-spill? Just reading a little too deep, but thats where the imagination kicks in

edit: in the exitement I forgot to mention the new controller - does anyone else find it a little curious that the new controller for the edubot is highly sealed/tightly built? It seems to me that more support for pneumatic/hydraulic components and other water-resistant electronic-supplements is a little fishy (bad pun, I know..) It makes sense to my conspiracy oriented mind, anyway.

DRUMS YOU SAY?? hehehehe!

The actual prediction I made..

[Rasta]

What about a competition on ice? it could be held at skating rinks. that would be straight g-code.

[Gadget470]

Originally Posted by Rasta

What about a competition on ice? it could be held at skating rinks. that would be straight g-code.

Since "straight g-code" is not a real word, or phrase, I will assume that to be some kind of slang for "super neat".

Ice competitions probably won't happen either. Most ice rinks are either not large enough or willing to give up the space for a whole weekend. Also, where do you expect teams to practice?

[disturbedislife]

yes, youve said it before.... ok, we get all of the positive, and negative points to this discussion.... but there is only one way to find out what FIRST has planned for future competitions. ya wanna know the inside secret on how to find out? (go ahead, laugh at me....) IT'S TO JUST SHUT UP AND WAIT! WOO HOO!

[ranma_saotome20]

Well, I don't know if it's with First, but I know someone hold a submersible contest. I don't know a lot of the details, but I do know that our school is currently building a submersible this year. Maybe that's what you guys have been hearing about. Maybe...

[David Kelly]

How long does a 2 year old water competition rumor thread need to go on?? I think this one has run its course.