FRC Off-Season Vex Competition Ideas

[Chris is me]

Vex motors really can't shoot anything more than a foot or so. Basically the ony things it could shoot that far wouldn't have the mass to travel far. I guess floor shooters would be fine.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Vex motors really can't shoot anything more than a foot or so. Basically the ony things it could shoot that far wouldn't have the mass to travel far. I guess floor shooters would be fine.

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex-structure-products.shtml

VEX Latex Tubing


VEX Latex Tubing comes in (2) 5 ft lengths for a total of 10 ft. The VEX Latex Tubing is made from 35A durometer Latex. The Outside Diameter is 1/8 inch and the Inside Diameter is 1/16 inch. This VEX Tubing can stretch up to 3 times its length and still spring back to its original shape. VEX Latex Tubing is great for any application on a VEX robot requiring spring loading.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Vex motors really can't shoot anything more than a foot or so.

I recomend you check out MARS's (1523) bot from 2006. You don't need a spinning wheel to quickly shoot balls far.

[NickE]

I would suggest creating vertical posts and scoring rings (such as in the 2008 FTC Game) on them. Either put 9 posts and score the game like triple play or put more and score the game like Rack and Roll. Kinda like a combination of the 05 and 07 FRC Games

[Chuck Glick]

Well Twinkle Toes,

If you do choose to do a replay of a game this year, you know I will not be building your robot for you the night before this year.

Oh yeah, and trust me, I will make it rain again this year... Just like in '07

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Vex motors really can't shoot anything more than a foot or so. Basically the ony things it could shoot that far wouldn't have the mass to travel far. I guess floor shooters would be fine.

I wish I still had video to prove this but, my Sophomore Year (?) I made a 1/3 scale Aim High Robot from Vex parts that shot racquet balls (the were used in the 2006 FVC game). It used two 1:7 reductions for the shooter and used 3 motors. The motors would over heat after a while and it only shot about 1 ball per second but it shot a lot more than 1 foot. I'd imagine if you were to use some kind of small lightweight foam ball or ping pong ball you could easily shoot over 5 feet. So I'd say that 2006 could be played with vex.

I think that 2008 would be the least feasible. I'd assume it'd use something about the size of a kickball. That'd be difficult to manipulate with vex motors...

Unless of course you use on of these babies: http://www.vexforum.com/gallery/file...icture_082.jpg

[Akash Rastogi]

Overdrive is mad easy to create a VEX game for. PVC for the win. I would change up the game pieces and have different ball sizes to hurdle.

[EricH]

I happen to know that it is quite possible (and practical) to recreate Triple Play with a VEX Starter Kit, some fishing line, and a bunch of drinking straws. You'll probably also want some wooden dowels and some cardboard for the goals.

The straws are for tetras. Cut pieces to the appropriate length, thread the fishing line through the pieces (I don't remember the pattern offhand), and tie it off the right way, and you have a perfectly good tetra. Remnants of straws can be used as alliance flags.

For the robot portion, it's really easy to do a single-joint arm...

330 did it for a fundraiser a few years back. The second day, we turned it into soccer because it was hard for people to handle the tetras with the stock robots we provided. As this is for more veteran types, that won't be as much of an issue.

[dk5sm5luigi]

Another option is to used an old Savage Soccer game. (http://users.wpi.edu/~savage/) The fields are cheap to build, the games are a lot of fun, directions on how to build the fields are available, and the rules are already written.

If you would like a suggestion on a specific game I would recommend 2004, 2005, 2007, or this years.

[RMS11]

Something I have always wanted to try, a bit like lunacy...

What if you had one goal that was a box on wheels autonomusly programmed to drive and try to avoid walls? And then the other robots tried to catch it and score some form of medium sized balls in it? I think this would be pretty cool to watch and play, and strategy would be very important.

[NickE]

Originally Posted by RMS11

Something I have always wanted to try, a bit like lunacy...

What if you had one goal that was a box on wheels autonomusly programmed to drive and try to avoid walls? And then the other robots tried to catch it and score some form of medium sized balls in it? I think this would be pretty cool to watch and play, and strategy would be very important.

A goal on a roomba?

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by NickE

A goal on a roomba?

Now this -- THIS is a good idea.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by NickE

A goal on a roomba?

If you don't use it expect for this to pop up somewhere else. Im gonna go try to convince Kettering to let me do this at the Kickoff event. (We provide the robots and let little kids try it)

[Chris is me]

We didn't put a goal on a Roomba, but in MVL the main goal was a Vex robot with an inverted cone on it that was designed to avoid robots. Basically you had to pin it against a wall to score... what foreshadowing!