QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!

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Posted by Andy Baker.

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 8/29/2000 7:11 AM MST


In Reply to: Children of the Corn posted by Eric Rasmussen on 8/26/2000 8:58 PM MST:



: Think of Maize Craze..

: and the Technocats had a really light and fast robot that ran around on top of the corn with spikey : aluminum spokes that approximated the shape of wheels.

My boss was the designer of our Maize Craze machine... the 'Cornvette'. He reminds me at least once a year of things like...

'we barely had enough power to drive ONE motor... let alone 12!'
'you guys have it easy with that carpet... I tell ya that CORN was difficult stuff!'
'and then we had to deal with this TETHER... oooh, that was a pain!'
'and we didn't even get our team together until 2 weeks into the competition!'
'and the playing field... no matter how you turned, you were always driving UPHILL!'

OK, maybe I'm fibbing on the last one, but he never lets a season pass without telling us how difficult the first year was. I just remind him... It's been almost 10 years... and he's getting old!

Andy B.

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Posted by Eric Rasmussen.

Engineer from FIRST.

Posted on 9/2/2000 9:04 PM MST


In Reply to: 'Good ol' Days' posted by Andy Baker on 8/29/2000 7:11 AM MST:



: 'and we didn't even get our team together until 2 weeks into the competition!'

Wow. I thought my team was the only one who started two weeks late... I know that my college president signed up for a team and then never actually organized anything until two weeks into the period. I got drafted into it when Dean gave him a call to remind him to participate and he had to whip together a team quickly.

: It's been almost 10 years... and he's getting old!

So what are you saying?

-Eric

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Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/20/2000 11:10 PM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



everyone does. as with the age-old story of every guy wanting to date the new girl in school, it is something about the whole 'mystery' of it that we want to solve. I just want to make a hovercraft. neech.

-erin

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Posted by Andy Grady.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Other on team in limbo from in limbo sponsored by in limbo.

Posted on 8/21/2000 8:04 AM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



OK, call me old fashioned, but im perfectly happy with the rug we have been using for the past 8 years. And here are my reasons...

1. Something tells me that building the playing field to practice on would be difficult and expensive, let lone a pain to dispose of.

2. How much can you do with a boat before it sinks. Im sorry, maybe its just lack of faith and engineering experience, but I just don't feel that we could put too much on a floating robot without it sinking (thinking on a larger scale here because im sure FIRST wants the crowd to be able to see whats goin on)

3. Waterproofing...nuf said

Though I do think that adding water to the game would create a clean slate for teams, I just think it would be too difficult to accomplish especially for rookie teams.

peace out,
Andy Grady

p.s. One thing I wouldn't mind that has something to do with fluid...Hidrolics =) Anyone with me here?

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Other on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NASA, Mathsoft, Solidworks, Analog Devices.

Posted on 8/21/2000 3:58 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/21/2000 8:04 AM MST:



Hydrolics...hmmm, now that sounds like an interesting idea Andy. We already have pnumatics, why not throw another aspect in there?

Lora

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Posted by Eric Rasmussen.

Engineer from FIRST.

Posted on 8/26/2000 9:22 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/21/2000 8:04 AM MST:



: 2. How much can you do with a boat before it sinks. Im sorry, maybe its just lack of faith and engineering experience, but I just don't feel that we could put too much on a floating robot without it sinking (thinking on a larger scale here because im sure FIRST wants the crowd to be able to see whats goin on)

You need to start thinking 'outside the box'. Sure, a boat could get swamped and sink, but what about an inflatable raft? Open-topped canoes are regularly used on whitewater rivers by adding large, inflated 'bags' (don't know the technical term) at the front and back, thus preventing the majority of the volume inside of the canoe from being flooded if water splashes in. Just imagine how much buoyancy you could get from submerging a single 14' diameter inflated ball.

-Eric

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Posted by Jason Iannuzzi.

Engineer on team #11, Marauders, from Mt. Olive HS. and BASF, Rame Hart, CCM.

Posted on 8/21/2000 1:57 PM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



A few years ago, I was helping out with the committee that brought the Mid-Atlantic Regional to NJ, and I had a chance to speak with a few of the FIRST people about the future.

I remember more than one person mention that the idea of an event in the water was being considered.

Of course, they were also thinking of having students actually sit 'in' the robots (not in the water year though), and we know that's not going to happen.

Either way, at least we know that the idea has crossed their minds.

My opinion...not gonna happen. It's hard enough to find an area large enough to build a normal playing field...now we'd have to find an indoor swimming pool that didn't mind giving up countless hours of the busy season so a bunch of people could throw greasy electrical machines in them. Now way.

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Posted by Kyle Huang.

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Gunn High School and Sun Microsystems, Nasa/Ames and Xerox PARC.

Posted on 8/22/2000 2:14 AM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



Water competition eh?
take a look at this URL. it's another pre-existing robotics competition, called
AUVSI: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition.
it's held in Disney World as well, however this competition look considerably
more complex than FIRST is currently.
But anyways, there are many areas to hold a water-based at Disney World.
Just think of all the lakes, etc. i believe the AUVSI nationals are held in the
water at the Coronado Springs resort.

PS, their webserver is very unreliable, so maybe try this site instead:
http://web.mit.edu/rec/orca/orca.html
this site is MITs AUVSI team site

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Posted by Matt Leese.

Student on team #7 from Parkville High School and NASA, Black & Decker, AAI, Raytheon.

Posted on 8/22/2000 7:33 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Kyle Huang on 8/22/2000 2:14 AM MST:



I think you might be a little confused here. AUVSI is the Automated Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. My team actually took our robot to show off at their convention when it was in Baltimore. I believe the Autonomous Underwater Vehicel Competition is sponsored by AUVSI (can't really tell as all I can reach is the MIT site). AUVSI is really mostly military contractors who specialize in unmanned systems. A lot of the big names like Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon are all there among others. I do know that there weren't any exhibits on this competition at the convention and people did seem very impressed by FIRST.

Matt

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Posted by Mike A..

Student on team #56, RobbeXtreme, from Bound Brook High School and Ethicon.

Posted on 8/23/2000 1:49 PM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



I think that having competition in a tank of water would be a sweet idea. It would definetly make it very challangeing to both students and engineers! But i do see sometime in the next couple of years we would have this challange.

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Posted by Matt Ryan.

Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and Gillette.

Posted on 8/23/2000 4:32 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Mike A. on 8/23/2000 1:49 PM MST:



It is a good idea, but the only problem with it is if a robot breaks down, it probably sink, and there goes six weeks of hard work down the drain in the blink of an eye. And many robots break down one time or another (hint: ours broke down a lot)

-=Freshman (aka Matt Ryan, Team 69 Intelligence)=-

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Posted by Eric Rasmussen.

Engineer from FIRST.

Posted on 8/26/2000 9:10 PM MST


In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/20/2000 11:03 AM MST:



: Hi all, time once again for the question of the week:

: Question 8/20/00: Do you think that having water as a playing field would be a good idea?

Do you think competing against the Coast Guard Academy and Naval Undersea Warfare Center teams in a water-based competition is a good idea?

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Other on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NASA, Mathsoft, Solidworks, Analog Devices.

Posted on 8/26/2000 11:21 PM MST


In Reply to: Teams with unfair advantages posted by Eric Rasmussen on 8/26/2000 9:10 PM MST:



: : Hi all, time once again for the question of the week:

: : Question 8/20/00: Do you think that having water as a playing field would be a good idea?

: Do you think competing against the Coast Guard Academy and Naval Undersea Warfare Center teams in a water-based competition is a good idea?