Floor Problems

[Lucario231]

Hi
Our team has been testing with the "Regolith" floor and the tires.
When the robot is held in place the tires spin in one place on the floor and the floor then produces a powder(white) and the tire surface is damaged.

Anyone else have this issue??

thanks in advance

[martin417]

We noticed the same thing. Not only is the surface of wheel "roughened", the surface of the FRP is worn down. Over time, the friction coefficient increases. Early matches will be very slippery, but as competition goes on, grip will improve....in spots.

[Doug G]

I was surprised in how the coefficient of friction changed as the wheel's wear. We started Sunday on a clean school floor and measured a coefficient of 0.095 (static) and 0.085 (dynamic). We figured this would be closed enough for testing purposes and kept our practice bot light to make up for the higher coefficients. After about 10-15 minutes of driving around during the first few days of the week, we remeasured the coefficients, they're up to 0.18 (static). We now have some FRP material and get 0.11 (static) on it with our worn in wheels. What is causing a lot of the wearing in the wheels is any dust and dirt on the floor. I absolutely believe that as the floor and wheels wear in, the traction will get slightly better, but still nothing compared to previous years.

[Siri]

Wow, thanks for the heads-up. Does anyone know if doing this (accidentally) will be penalized as damaging the arena?

[daneelshof]

I noticed this happening as well, however, only after having driven for a while on our 4' x 8' sheet of FRP then driving on the carpet. The wheels seemed to leave a dust-like residue on the carpet.

We drove pretty carefully, since the sheet was so small, and only for a couple of minutes.

FIRST is usually very judicious about what they penalize based on field damage. I think the intent of that rule is to avoid blatant, intentional damage to the field pieces.

[Tetraman]

When they mean "damage to the field" they usually mean anything that causes actual fractures to the carpet/tile or basiclly anything that needs to be fixed beyond a small bit of duct tape to the floor.

But I wonder if the GDC knows that the floors get roughed up? I wonder if each regional gets new flooring? Maybe a Regolith Resurfacer "Zamboni" will pass over the field every so often?

[IndySam]

FIRST isn't going to replace the floor after every regional. They wouldn't replace the carpet in the past and it was cheaper, their certainly not going to replace $1200 of flooring.

Think about the third or forth regional on a used floor or even better think about the championship after division finals on worn out floors teams come to the pristine field at Einstein.

[DonRotolo]

Interesting thought, so I spawned a thread...

[Covey41]

Originally Posted by IndySam

FIRST isn't going to replace the floor after every regional. They wouldn't replace the carpet in the past and it was cheaper, their certainly not going to replace $1200 of flooring.

Not sure if you are talking about the regionals.....But FIRST replaces the carpet at every event.(At least for the past 10 years.) Last weekend at the New Hampshire KickOff it was discussed with Neil Rosenberg. (FRC Eng. Mgr) He stated the the flooring would be new for each FIRST event.

The question would be....What happens for the off-season events? Will FIRST be supplying the flooring with the field, or do the events have to find their own?

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by IndySam

FIRST isn't going to replace the floor after every regional. They wouldn't replace the carpet in the past and it was cheaper, their certainly not going to replace $1200 of flooring.

I can confirm that they DO replace the carpet. I can say that because we have the WI regional carpet from 06 and 07 in our shop. After the competition we brought a trailor and took the carpet with us.

Joey

[nHouse]

thanks for the heads up, we haven't done this kind of thing yet but i'll be sure to pass it along....

[Team 1865]

Thanks for the advice, this will come in handy when it comes to our game strategy....

[TKM.368]

So we've been driving around for a few days as well and now have a bunch of powder that's accumulated. Is it being overly cautious to be concerned with the combination of "powder" coming off of something "fiberglass" for 6 weeks???

Installation Safety:
"Wear filter mask to cover nose and mouth, especially when cutting."

MSDS:
Section 7 — Special Protection Information
Respiratory Protection (specific type) – NIOSH Approved Protective Mask That
Covers Mouth and Nose When Cutting or Machining.
Ventilation – Control Dust When Cutting or Machining
Protective Goves – Dust/Abrasive Resistant
Eye Protection – Safety Glasses or Goggles
Other Protective Clothing or Equipment – N/A

Hopefully I'm making a mountain out of a molehill...

[Tetraman]

I wonder if FIRST knows about this erosion of the playing field.

[GaryVoshol]

Yes, I'm sure FIRST never tested the field, never drove robots around, never built a trailer. The first time anyone every saw the field was when Woodie, Dave and Dean were demonstrating the 2-motor vs 4-motor bots at Kickoff.

C'mon folks, let's give them due credit.