Back to balls.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

as far as balls go i would love to see balls on a different, like golf balls. can you picture 500 golf balls on the Field at once, yea it will never happen because field reset would be ridiculous but...just think about it

Well, suppose that such things weren't explicitly reset. Like reset would sweep clear the path for robots to load in and out, but otherwise everything would be dumped out whereever.

So much for sensorless autonomous modes!

[Squirrelrock]

And if the game had multiple colors of balls, as metioned earlier (in this thread, i think), then sweeping a path for the bots to get on and off would make the auton worse than just random placement would. If you need to put only blue balls into your bin, but you don't know where you start, or where your bin is, you could at least still know what color balls are around you (assuming one color of balls per side, always). However, If your start position is know, but the ball color isn't, then you know where you are and where to go, but not what to pick up, which is by far the hardest thing to do in autonomous mode.


.02$

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

honestly i think alot of what FIRST uses each year has to do with cost/availability for both themselves and teams. pretty much since the floppies things have been commonly available. playground balls, soccer balls, plastic totes, playground/exercise balls, PVC pipe, etc. they need to make it so that everyone has access to them.

The floppies were commonly available, they were just some assembly required.

Wetzel

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Squirrelrock

If your start position is know, but the ball color isn't, then you know where you are and where to go, but not what to pick up, which is by far the hardest thing to do in autonomous mode.

Perhaps this would be the shining moment for the CMUcam. Mount it along some tube inside the robot that the balls pass through, and by seeing red/blue/yellow balls, it'd be sorted into bins that could then be dumped out as needed.

Of course, I also see the up side to larger playground balls--you can get whacked in the head with them and not hurt as much. (Playground balls to the head will stun you for a moment, but anything that passes a FIRST inspection can't throw it hard enough to bruise or anything. Golf balls, on the other hand...)

[jdiwnab]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Well, suppose that such things weren't explicitly reset. Like reset would sweep clear the path for robots to load in and out, but otherwise everything would be dumped out whereever.

So much for sensorless autonomous modes!

Giant Roomba's! Clear the floor of the golfballs. More balls wins!

[Squirrelrock]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Perhaps this would be the shining moment for the CMUcam. Mount it along some tube inside the robot that the balls pass through, and by seeing red/blue/yellow balls, it'd be sorted into bins that could then be dumped out as needed.

Of course, I also see the up side to larger playground balls--you can get whacked in the head with them and not hurt as much. (Playground balls to the head will stun you for a moment, but anything that passes a FIRST inspection can't throw it hard enough to bruise or anything. Golf balls, on the other hand...)

Going with the golf balls thing, we would then ovbiously not be allowed to throw anything at all, intentionally or unintentionally, and consequentially your drive system would need to be (re-)designed to make sure that you don't kick up any golf balls when you are moving or are trying to move.

[Petey]

Originally Posted by Squirrelrock

Could you be any more vague than that, Dave?

<edit>
O God, I had to ask it. Now we'll never learn anything from him.
</edit>

Could that seriously be a picture from this year's game? When you do a google search of baton, majorette, or majorette baton, that image doesn't come up anywhere in the top few pages--but lots of others do.

Plus, it has the CGI look of FIRST's stuff...

Hmmm...

--Petey

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

(Beta Testing =/= Fine Tuning).

Heh. Beta Testing == RTM.

[alphastryk]

Originally Posted by Petey

Could that seriously be a picture from this year's game? When you do a google search of baton, majorette, or majorette baton, that image doesn't come up anywhere in the top few pages--but lots of others do.

Plus, it has the CGI look of FIRST's stuff...

Hmmm...

--Petey

sorry to shoot down your theory about that being an exact game pice, but the image is part of a product description on http://americanbaton.com (click on "view products", its the second one)

I'm going to assume any 'baton' is most likely made of pvc, as that is easily available to teams to practice with.

-alphastryk

[Alex Burman]

Originally Posted by JoeXIII'007

Triangle, circle, square.
Why do I think of the 20-sided dice I have for MTG life counters??? Well, they're bit circular, a bit square, and have many Triangles. Why has FIRST not used these yet as game objects???

I play D&D D4 are 4 sided dice and tetras, d6 are cubes, they also have d8 d10, d12, d20 (as mentioned), and one that can get really fun the d100 with 100 little sides.