What size playing field do you build?

[Ian W.]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

Hi all FIRSTers

How much of the playing field do you build?
Do you build the whole field with all the added items (goals, ramps etc...)?
Do you build just the added items?
Do you build anything?

This would make a nice poll if I knew how

Wayne Doenges

Generally, teams that have room and money construct at least part of the major playing piece of the game. In past years, my old team has built goals and ramps, but we try to stay away from anything too big, as we didn't have that much room. We did have almost a full ramp in 2003 though, which really didn't help us much, but it was fun to fool around with, that's for sure (and nice for demos).

[TLonghorns0593]

We usually build pieces relevant to our robot design also.
2004- stationary goal, mobile goal, 6 inch platform, and the ball dump
2003- we made the entire ramp and bought all the bins that went on the ramp.
2002- we mad one goal

The other years I don't know what we did as i was not on the team.

[Jon K.]

We build a full field, with usually as many parts as we can get prints for. Last year we built 1 moveable goal not two, but we had a bar with both sides, and the field was to scale. Since FIRST didn't realease ball dumps til late we were not able to set them up unfortunately.

[663.keith]

in 2004 team 663 built one of the lower platforms, and mocked up part of the higher platform by destroying our ramp from 2003. we constructed 1 mobile goal, and one ball tee.

in 2003 we constructed the entire ramp, but had a smaller carpet, but it still worked fine.

in 2002 we built the entire playing field. unfortunately in '02, we didn't have a space to store the playing field fully set up, so we had to tear it down after practices

[Bcahn836]

we build a half playing field, for example last year we built one mobile goal and one stationary goal, the ball chute and a bar that the human player had to shoot over.

[pakrat]

We made like half the field. One mobile, one stationary, the bar, thats it. We did build a whole field in 2003 though. I think you only need the parts that your robot wil use.

[Ali Ahmed]

Because we have a pre-ship competition, we have to build the whole Field. I find that it is somewhat of a hassle and building half a field would be more practical. But we do the competition. Oh well.

[J Flex 188]

2004 - mobile goal with interchangeable pipe lengths so it became like.. a double goal *ooh* =P with stationary length pipe there too. we also put a big pipe in our tech room for height estimate, but never hung off it as it was supported on one side only. well maybe didnt hang off it for long

2003 - built a full scale ramp, no sides but same top surface and wire mesh, about a 1/3rd of the bins

2002 - mobile goal

2001 - the tilting ramp i believe?

we have all purpose robotics carpets from maybe 2-3-4 years ago that takes about 4-5 team members to move. though this year i can probably avoid that with the influx of grade 9s to the team =)

[Kyle Love]

This year, we basically built a whole field. Things that we didn't include were, the 2nd player station, the little steps in front of the lower platform on the far end platform, and the second stationary goal. We only had one mobile goal also, we normally just used it by ourselves so there was no real need for it.(Except when Panthertech comes a night or two before ship.) We also don't really put the little fence up around the field.

-Kyle

[rangersteve]

we build the whole thing

all the walls/boundaries/goals/platforms/and such

we allow any team to come and practice on it so if you live in or near StL contact someone

[Doug G]

And on a similar note....

Where do you place your field (or components) for practicing?

We work entirely out of a school, and typically keep whatever field components we make outdoors (even in the rain sometimes). If their small they can be put in storage, but last year our upper and lower platforms and pull up bar sat in the rain.

[Bcahn836]

last year we had an unused diesel mechanics shop, we used like 3 of their bays to put our playing field, it was right outside our classroom last year. However this year diesel mechanics is still not there so they built a giant room spanning that entire area so now we can't use it. This year i have no idea where to put our playing field, our tech center where our shop is, is being renovated so we have only our shop and class room. Which is way too small for driving a robot safely. And we can't build it outside it will be snowing soon.