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  #16   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 12-06-2005, 22:28
Meyerman Meyerman is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

56 has been to about 15 demos since nats we bring 1 goal 2 tetras and when we get there we just put tetras on a table and stack then let who ever wants to drive the bot drive it, when visiting the pre-k we found a girl that was able to drive the bot good enough for us to step away from the control it was pretty funny. it seems kids really dont seem to care about us showing them the bot they like to drive soo we give them what they want. and most of our demos have been in a small areasoo limit what you bring and it makes things easier.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 08:01
WEHickok WEHickok is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Our team has done demos in small areas. It is not easily done with our competition robots. So we developed CASEY (Community Awareness of Science and Education Year-round). You may have seen CASEY near the GM tent at the Competition. CASEY was built with spare parts (you get a lot after nine years in FIRST) and was designed to be a SHOBOT...to entertain. Two if the nice features are that we have are a Speed Switch that will change to program to slow the robot down to half speed...nice for small children. The other is a Kill switch that will shut down the robot when pushed.

The other day CASEY was out of service so we took the HOTBOT to a school in Detroit for a demonstration. We noticed that after you did what the competition bot was designed to do it became boring. With CASEY the kids can easily drive it (and it was designed with wheels that could be run on any surface) and they love to get the balloons that HOT Team members blow up and twist.

We do not take the HOTBOT out much anymore...so space is not much of an issue.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 09:42
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

We had a mulit-robot demo at MARM last month in a lecture room at Rutgers. The playing field was about 20' x 15', with two goals. The teams ran informal demos and let people try their hands at driving, running one robot at a time mostly.

One thing which we will do the next time is have channel switches to allow running two robots with radios; tethers are okay, but radios are better. We didn't have any incidents, but a master emergency stop would be a good thing to have, at least for peace of mind.

Team 103 did a lot of demos at the SBS Conference last year, too. There, we drove the robot all over the exhibition hall, gave driving lessons for attendees (everyone got a robot drivers license) and held a drag race with SICO (guess who won). No incidents other than a 6 yr old trying to drive the robot through a table, but an e-stop would have saved some anxiety. The key in an open area like that is to have people watching and anticipating to avoid incidents.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 10:04
Meyerman Meyerman is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Quote:
Originally Posted by petek
We had a mulit-robot demo at MARM last month in a lecture room at Rutgers. The playing field was about 20' x 15', with two goals. The teams ran informal demos and let people try their hands at driving, running one robot at a time mostly.

One thing which we will do the next time is have channel switches to allow running two robots with radios; tethers are okay, but radios are better. We didn't have any incidents, but a master emergency stop would be a good thing to have, at least for peace of mind.
when we found out team 365 had a switch bharat from 25 and myself went and switched all the channel we did have 5 robots running at one point then they all capped corey for team 25 with the robots.

so if you want to run more than 1 bot at a time be sure you can switch channels, tethers arent the best.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 10:12
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SuperJake SuperJake is offline
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Talking Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Whenever we do demos without much floor space, we usually have one game piece and one goal. We'll also bring cones to set up an obstacle course so people can try maneuvering the robot around on the floor. We have a dongle that plugs into the competition port on the OI that will allow the channel to be changed, auto mode to be enabled/disabled and robot control enabled/disabled. We'll usually have a MOE member at the secondary controller station or right behind the drivers ready to switch the disable switch on the controller in case of an unsafe condition.

When the motors get hot, we'll open the access panels and let everyone crowd around and we give a tour of the inside of the robot. People really like to see motors, wires, and other electrical-type stuff inside a robot even if they don't fully understand what it is. It looks high-tech and exciting.

<edit>The dongles are usually pretty popular with teams, and they aren't difficult to make. For help making one, the best resource is CDID: The Lucas (Brian Lucas). He is a MOE Alum turn electrical mentor that helped make a bunch. I didn't ask him if I could use him as a resource, but it should be cool. </edit>
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Last edited by SuperJake : 13-06-2005 at 10:15.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 10:37
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Whenever we demo the robot it is usually in a small room. So before alot of people get there we do a few practice runs and test the limits of the robot in the room, like 360's and taking the arm full up and out, if the celling is high enough. Once we figure out what we can and can't do we have a few team members stand in various places to protect spectators and shut off the robot if something happens. It is very important to have spotters in small areas when doing a demo.
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Unread 13-06-2005, 10:41
Jaine Perotti Jaine Perotti is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Team 716 has done many demos with reduced space.

Having led several demos, I find that my main concern is the safety of the audience members while a kid (or an adult) is driving. The first presentation I ever did was for an elementary school in Pine Plains, NY (we were making a presentation about robotics in the hope that we could start a lego team there). As the kids were coming in, we handed out different color question marks (our logo), and whoever got a certain color could come up and drive. We were presenting in a school gym, and the kids were sitting on bleachers, and others were on the floor. As kids were driving, there were several times when I had to grab the joysticks to prevent the robot from crashing into audience members who were sitting on the floor or in the very first row of bleachers. Although we also have a dongle (and I am always ready to flip the switch), I wish that there were a better way to keep spectators safe. With a dongle, you may hit the switch too late, or the robot may continue to move with momentum.

At another demo I did, we had our robot at a Tri-State business expo, and were basically trying to spread community awareness about our team - we werent trying to solicit for donations as much as we were trying to get publicity. We brought a mini-bar from the 2004 game, and we demonstrated how the robot could hang on the bar. Personally, I like the 2004 robot/game the best for demonstration, because hanging off the bar is a pretty cool feat to watch, plus a reduced size version of the bar can easily be built. It doesn't take up much room, and it is very attention-grabbing. However, even with this reduced-space setup, I was still concerned for the safety of the crowd. Even though we had experienced drivers, the crowd was not as likely to make good decisions about maintaining a safe distance. Because the robot was in the aisle, it would not allow people to pass by very easily. I also think that the audience would have felt safer if there had been some sort of a barrier. Therefore, I have the following solution:

Build a "portable field barrier" that would serve as a boundary for the robot-driving area. The field would look similar to the basic fence that surrounds a FIRST playing field, except made from lower cost materials, such as plywood. Build it so that the pieces of it are segmented - so that you could assemble/dissasemble it with ease, and it would be stored in a small area. You could also assemble it as large/small as you want to, and in any shape so that it would be adaptable to the type of presentation you are doing and how much space it requires or is allowed. The benefits of this type of field setup are numerous - the audience feels more comfortable with the robot, and they are safer.

My team has not built anything like this yet, but it seems like it would be a good idea. Maybe your team can give it a try, and see how it works out. Hope this helped.

-- Jaine
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Unread 13-06-2005, 11:59
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Jeff Waegelin Jeff Waegelin is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

One word of caution: if you have a very tall robot, be very careful about going up high in small spaces. In high school, we ran a couple of demos using our 2001 robot, which was about 13 feet tall, and very unstable. The first time we used it, we were using it to pick up a garbage can, and tipped the robot over, leaving a big black mark about 10 feet up on the wall. The second time, we almost tipped the robot over on top of a small child Needless to say, that was the last time we ever used that robot for demonstration purposes.
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Unread 14-06-2005, 14:15
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

Well, here's my story that I promised, but before I start, 330 was doing a small space demo around the time I posted. Here goes:

We do a demo for our school every year, at the "Night of Excellence" (talent show with displays in the back). To do this, we have to run on the stage, which has some areas that the robot must not go into. Effectively, we only have about 20' by 10', but the width varies. The plan for this demo: run robot, show a match video, run robot some more, exit in a hurry. Unfortunately, the video was not cued properly and could not be run, so we ran the robot instead.

Last weekend, our church (all the team members go to the same church, which also runs our school) wanted us to do a demo at all four services. Bear in mind that the stage is the same as above, but now we have to dodge the worship team's equipment. And, we have a very strict timetable for moving BeachBot onto the stage from the wings and back to the wings. The plan this time: someone introduces the team, then two people tag-team to tell everyone about the robot while a slide show is played. At certain times, BeachBot caps one or more tetras. Everything went like clockwork, other than the occasional dropped tetra, which was picked up again.

Having videos certainly helps...

To those who do demos in tiny spaces: congratulations!
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Unread 17-06-2005, 10:42
Lil' Lavery Lil' Lavery is offline
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Re: Reduced-space Demos?

We have had to do a few small scall demos. When weve done them, weve typically had the robot on display, but not driving. We had a display board or two, trophies, and a laptop either playing a highlight reel or our animation. We have our students answer the questions and whatnot in the remaining space. And of course we have a place to put brochures, spare buttons, trading cards, and other things they can take with them.
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