Question of the Week!!! (7/26/04)

[Lisa Perez]

Grass would be pretty sweet to see. The all-natural stuff. It's somewhat irregular, so teams would have to compensate for the abnormalities somehow. And they'd have to be more careful so as to not ruin the playing field.

[Kyle Love]

I think we need to go back to the beginning and have a field of corn. I know that sounds wierd but it might be kind of cool. It would most likely require a drivebase without the regular tires. In the middle, or somewhere, there should be some other type of substance. (Could be ice, grass, tile or keep it with the carpet.) My other idea for a new field surface is the type of tile schools usually use.(Big waxed tiles) That would make the field slipery like ice but hard like regular tiles. I think that would be fun to see robots on slipery surfaces!
-Kyle

[dubious elise]

Sand... the texture changes almost constantly as it is driven over aaaaand you have to deal with the ever-present danger of small particles getting into electrical equipment.

muahahahaaaa

[Jay H 237]

How about a ball pit like at Chuck-E-Cheeze or having rollers (like on a conveyor) made out of PVC pipe? This wouldn't cover the whole field but instead form a "hazard area" that you could either try avoiding or designing a robot to deal with it. This would partially divide the field and your score could be partially based on how long it takes you to get across the field. You would either take the "scenic route" and avoide these but lose points or if your robot is capable ignore the hazards and go staight across.

Or I still like the snow idea. Nothing like seeing a robot on skis or a snowboard For the southern and southwest teams don't worry, we have plenty of snow up here and we'd be happy to ship you as much as you want. I might even try to convince those in New Hampshire to include snow in the KOP for you too!

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

How about a ball pit like at Chuck-E-Cheeze

AHHHHHH!! You stole my idea.. lol I guess great minds think alike.. lol

Anyways, the other thing I was thinking and I know it's been said before, is velcro. I like that concept.. I would divide the playing field into zones (circa: 2002) and make 3 zones the hooking material and 2 zones the soft material.
It would be very hard to gain traction on either of the materials that make up velcro, unless you have the mating surface as wheels, which would be dissalowed if I designed the game rules, just because...

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

How about a ball pit like at Chuck-E-Cheeze or having rollers (like on a conveyor) made out of PVC pipe?

I like this idea. Only instead of one or the other make it so that the ball pit is right next to the pvc conveyor, and have the teams have to go through both, and figure out some game around it. Like they have to get a certain object off the conveyor and bring it back to a base or something like that.

Originally Posted by Kyle45

I think we need to go back to the beginning and have a field of corn. I know that sounds wierd but it might be kind of cool. It would most likely require a drivebase without the regular tires. In the middle, or somewhere, there should be some other type of substance. (Could be ice, grass, tile or keep it with the carpet.) My other idea for a new field surface is the type of tile schools usually use.(Big waxed tiles) That would make the field slipery like ice but hard like regular tiles. I think that would be fun to see robots on slipery surfaces!
-Kyle

Rok on! ya that would be so cool if it went back to the beginning with the corn stuff again. I think theysum year they should definetly do that again. I also think that ice would be cool too. slippery lol itd be tough. The carpet seems to boring haha

[dubious elise]

ooh, one more medium....jello!

it's mushy and wobbly - yet solid at the same time!!!

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally Posted by Lisa Perez

Grass would be pretty sweet to see. The all-natural stuff. It's somewhat irregular, so teams would have to compensate for the abnormalities somehow. And they'd have to be more careful so as to not ruin the playing field.

Along the same line of thinking...

Astroturf...

Its a diffrent surface from carpet, but you can still roll it up at the end of the Regional just like carpet.

[Mark Koors]

I was thinking a 3D structure would be fun to navigate on. Like a grating at one foot spacing made out of PVC pipe. Your robot could either bump along going in and out of the openings or stay up on the pipes for a smooth ride.

[Warren Boudreau]

Formica.

[Billfred]

Just a thought--why not a whole playground?

I mean, they're fairly compact, can be configured a bajillion ways, and can be disassembled pretty easily (so it seems). Stick some cameras inside so everyone can see, and bada-bing! You can practice at McDonald's.

[MikeyP]

So far, I have read about changing the field surface and size. I haven't heard anybody mention changing the robots instead of the field, other than the "water game" idea. What if they changed the game so that wheels could not be used for traction? I remember a team in 2003 that actually had a series of legs that walked instead of using wheels. I think it was team 276. Whoever had a cow mascot that year and designed their robot to look like a cow. Anyway, I think it would be cool to change the way you move.

Another option could be to change where you start from. Instead of starting on the ground level, start on top of a platform or on a wicked angle. If you give enough angle or change the way it is used, carpet can become very bad for traction. Imagine what would've happened if they put the carpet on the platform and put the HDPE on the floor this year. Changing the field surface is a good idea, but maybe changing the way they are used would be more practical. Maybe its a bad idea, but those are my thoughts.

[UCGL_Guy]

Masonite - shiny side up cheap and extremely slick. I like plywood also.
and for a twist dynamic smaller obstacles/challenges the field can be set up by your opponent with small ramps balls barrier whatevers of thier choice in say like 30 seconds.

[Jaine Perotti]

I think plywood is definitely a good idea...its cheap and almost anyone can get their hands on it. How about sheetrock?? Also, what if you had a playing field that used materials differing from eachother radically, for example, alternating bands of rubber and lexan. That would make it really challenging to design your drive train to handle radically different conditions. I could just see robots with good traction on rubber slide out of control once they hit a slippery surface...this would create a need for good driving skills.