New Game Idea: ROBOT HOCKEY!!

[the_short1]

first off thanks to: Rick TYler for suggesting the use of pucks as a scoring object in this thread:http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d=1#post480010

well i took it one step further.. . . robot hockey.. . . this years game seems to me like football.. with field goals in the uprights (center goal)... and low goals as touchdowns.. .

ok.. so with hockey as next years game:

have the 3 periods like this years game, with one robot in goal on defence period, then ffa at the end where you can choose.. could have multiple pucks on the ice at once to make it more lively.... *low shooting speed rule as not to damage robots*.. we could also start all 6 robots at blue line, with a few pucks at the center ice, and autom would be to grab the most pucks or the single puck, and win the faceoff. vision tracking a neon yellow puck? and having the green lights inside the goal...

three main types of bots needed:
goaltenders
defence
offence
so 3 radically different robot designs, would be fun to watch a team try to do all 3..

PROS:

- new surface to play on (ice) means a lot of new ideas / innovation to have traction, so teams have to start a NEW drivetrain...
- real engineers etc looking at the robots might get ideas on new traction devices in the real world.
- new scoring object, but for those that played 2006 game it woulnt be too hard to change balls to pucks (put shooting wheel on side.. with puck flat.. . voila..)
- has a decent level of banging up on each other (against the walls), but most of the time it may be gentler cuz you cant ram against a robot in the middle of the ice.. .theirs not enuf traction.

CONS:

- need to find a venue with ice capabilities...
- might be a little colder for some..
- ice might get damaged quickly if robots fall over
- field might become more expensive to maintain in some places...
- ice is slippery for people to go on field
- im a crazy canadian .. .


EDIT: if you really dont like the whole ice idea.. it can still be played but on carpet.. . but with a different puck material..

tell me what you think / ideas to add..
-kevin

[psyco_klown]

i like the idea of the ice it would be cool to see. as for the you needing an ice rink you don't need one there is are companies that makes super slippery delrin material for ice skaters and they get put together like tiles. plus i would like to see what teams would come up with for drive trains

[Richard Wallace]

Hockey! Even Americans gotta love hockey!

So we'd get to hear "O Canada" sung during opening ceremonies at all the regionals, eh?

Best part: the Zamboni machine! Better make the field elements easy to remove while the ice gets resurfaced!

[Tim Baird]

Originally Posted by the_short1

if you really dont like the whole ice idea.. it can still be played but on carpet.. . but with a different puck material..

Well, you could always use those street hockey pucks that have the ball bearings in them. I used to use those all the time and they run pretty good on asphalt. I'm sure they'd fly on carpet...

[hansTP2S]

Speeding, hard discs flying at our robots seems like a really good idea.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by psyco_klown

as for the you needing an ice rink you don't need one there is are companies that makes super slippery delrin material for ice skaters and they get put together like tiles. plus i would like to see what teams would come up with for drive trains

Using a non-carpet surface is the easiest method for FIRST to create a hockey-based game, but it doesn't need to be an expensive material. You could use squares of masonite screwed onto the subfloor. Sure the field will get some scars, but if one square gets significantly damaged, it can quickly be replaced.

I would love to see any game that increases interactivity within the alliance, rather than just against opponents. A fast-paced hockey based game could do that.

Also, street hockey pucks are a great design for this game, but they may be too low to the ground and get underneath disabled robots. You would have to account for this in some manner. There have been a number of posts about "pushing a tipped robot up the ramp for points" this year, and we wouldn't want a robot, already unable to move, get beaten to shreds as other robots fight to get a puck stuck underneath them.

[buss]

Ok, after watching the winter olympics, all I have to say is two words:
Robot Curling.

That has to be the best sport I've ever seen. And that's not even sarcasm!

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by buss

Curling [-] That has to be the best sport I've ever seen. And that's not even sarcasm!

We took a Boy Scout troop curling a couple of years ago, and they had a blast. The boys were also gleeful that the only people who fell down were adults.

Robot curling -- would they sweep and shoot both? Using full-size rocks? Sounds cool to me, but not much would happen in two minutes.

[John Gutmann]

The only problem I see with this game Idea is that the pucks are so small. This means one team would beable to hold probally all the pucks on the field at once really easya nd it would be hard for the drives to see what is going on with the pucks.

Also what would the human player do?

[the_short1]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

The only problem I see with this game Idea is that the pucks are so small. This means one team would beable to hold probally all the pucks on the field at once really easya nd it would be hard for the drives to see what is going on with the pucks.

Also what would the human player do?

hehe.. wow i thought this was more of a crazy idea then something doable .. cool.. . .as for pucks too small.... what about circles of HARD cheese?? ? .. ok that was a joke... could be a larger version of a puck, and if a robots on its side.. their going to slide real easy out of the way.. .. too many pucks? make possession limit rules.

acually now that i think about it more.. . their should be VERY little fallen robots.. they should all have low chasis to pick up pucks and low CofG because your not trying to shoot high... and you might have a stick style shooter which would be cool to see how they made the stick swing... our school made a robot shoot hockey balls for 2002? Canadian First robotics challenge.. and they had it slapshot

what would the human players do.. ok this is great idea: make them the goalie! im sure 200lb hockey players running into goalies / much faster hard pucks would hurt more then 130 lb robots shooting plastic ones at low velocity hahaha.. i smell not safe, but it would be cool... they can feed pucks?

zamboni: make a robotic zamboni, autonymously programmed.. we have the people, technology, and smarts. FIRST could ship this bot around to each regional well maybe have 2 in case one breaks..

[irishninja]

What about twelve inch diamter omni wheels for the pucks?

[Simon Strauss]

Originally Posted by Richard

So we'd get to hear "O Canada" sung during opening ceremonies at all the regionals, eh?

I'll have you know 1155 has been singing O' Canada after the other anthems at NYC for the past two years.

Also as goalie i love this idea but agree with whats been said on the matter of, all the fun parts of hockey and challenge will have to be taken out for it to be safe (small pucks etc). Also i unfortunately feel that these changes would remove the possibility for complicated and or interesting manipulators to appear on robots if the puck is too big. simple solution, anyone remember Crossfire, it was a table hockey based game that came out around '97 and used many small steel marbles along with having the most awesome theme song ever. for those of you who want hockey or curling a game like this might just satisfy your needs because it includes multiple high speed objects(whether they be pucks, poof balls or bouncy balls) going into goals and the usage of a more traditional sport type defence, team work and goal tenders. (i also think that this could be improved by making the max size for the robots smaller but that just might be my "the wheels are too big" pet peeve)

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by nycpunk

I'll have you know 1155 has been singing O' Canada after the other anthems at NYC for the past two years.

Nice! Especially considering that no Canadian teams were at NYC this year. [Though I think the UK and Brazil were each represented.]

I like hearing "O Canada" and "The Star Spangled Banner" sung one right after the other. Quite a tough job for the vocalist, one because of the accidentals and intervals, the other for its sheer range. This certainly adds to the challenge of auditioning to sing them.

I wonder how many FRC regionals get to hear both? Hopefully any where Canadian teams are entered. This year I think that may mean more than half of the regionals.

Did they sing the Brazilian anthem at NJ this year? I recall hearing it at MWR a couple of years ago.

[Duncan Macdonald]

I like the idea of a change in the floor then we'll see how imaginative ideas can get while trying to move on the ice.

[Donut]

I really like this idea of a slick tile playing surface. I don't think there'll be nearly as much of a problem as there was with tearing up carpet (though I'm sure a few tiles will crack), plus it gives teams a new challenge and gives them the chance to try some new drive train ideas (who else wouldn't want to try to build a snowmobile drive system?).

And as for National Anthems, nothing quite beats getting to hear pretty much all of continental North America played out in 5-10 minutes (AZ Regional the past 3 years).