2008 IRI (Indiana Robotics Invitational)

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by BT987

this may have been asked already but is there going to be a practice area to test autonomous if teams need???

Yes, there will be a full practice field in the fieldhouse (where most of the pits are). However... this practice field will also be the playing field for the pre-rookie challenge. There will be 3 hours on Friday and 1 hour on Saturday morning that the Pre-Rookie Challenge will take place on this field, and competing teams will not be able to practice.

Also, during some of the practice times, there will be a demonstration of the 2009 FRC Control System, presented by FIRST engineering.

The tentative schedule for the practice field is this:

Friday
11:00am-1:00pm: practice
1:00-2:00pm: Pre-Rookie Challenge
2:00-3:00pm: practice
3:00-4:00pm: Pre-Rookie Challenge
4:00-5:00pm: practice
5:00-6:00pm: Pre-Rookie Challenge

Saturday
8:00-10:00am: practice
10:00-11:00am: Pre-Rookie Challenge
noon: disassemble field

Practice time and a practice are has never been a priority for the IRI. The reason is that teams have many weeks of practice to get ready for IRI, as opposed to a in-season FIRST competition when you uncrate your robot and must get ready to play during your scheduled time.

We hope that this sharing of the practice field will be good for the competing teams and the pre-rookie teams.

This practice field will not have electronics. Also, it is a wooden field with a lighter-weight overpass than the regular FIRST field. With that said... it is still an awesome practice field and I predict that people will enjoy using it.

Andy