[BB]: What's going on, and the Delta field

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by merybar

once again of course water.....but in all seriousness does anyone have any ideas to what type of things they are doing?

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Not much has been said by FIRST or Bill's Blog.

[merybar]

thats what i was thinking considering nothing has been very specific, im very excited to see this tomorrow!

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Did someone say watergame ... ?

I'm pretty sure that idea is all wet.


-dave




..

[AlexD744]

I would love to see a close up picture of this delta feild and hear how it works from someone at riverrage, thanks!

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by dlavery

I'm pretty sure that idea is all wet.


-dave




..

...I sooo feel like I'm once again on to something.

Originally Posted by Karibou

Delta: Either as in a river delta, or delta as in the greek letter delta, which means a multitude of things (in physics/chem, it's normally used to represent a change in a value, i.e. delta T would be change in temperature). Or the GDC just likes messing with us, and Delta has some meaning that I'm not aware of :/
(I'm really inclined to think river delta...River Rage, Delta field, "taking shape"...)

[Steven Sigley]

Delta = Change

The game will not be the same as last years, bet on it.

[GaryVoshol]

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you've got on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?

And did I hear you say, he's gonna meet you here today,
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

[Tetraman]

Delta Field, you know, like "The Creater".

They are "Building the field elements"?

Sounds like Tetras/Racks to me.

[Richard Wallace]

The 2010 game will be played using dirigible robots. (ref) (ref)

[Note: this will simplify the inspection station. No scale needed -- since robots must be lighter than air! No sizing box either -- robot will be size-checked using a hula hoop and a 5 foot wooden caliper.]

Field elements will include magnetic docking stations at which robots can load or unload game pieces.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Steven Sigley

Delta = Change

The game will not be the same as last years, bet on it.

I don't think that that is exactly what is going to happen. Yes the game will change, but it seems that the purpose of the Delta field is to create a lower costing field.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Trying to Help

Visions of many, many empty Haagen-Dazs cups stacked all over the floor...

...along with visions of a 400 pound Dave, lying against the driver's station in an ice-cream induced stupor...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

They are "Building the field elements"?

Sounds like Tetras/Racks to me.

The trailers had to be built last year, too. There's an element that has to be built in virtually every game. It just means the odds of this game being robot sumo goes down a fair bit.

[Phil Ross]

did they mention at River Rage the lowered cost of building the field this way? I'm curious about the "delta" cost.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Phil Ross

did they mention at River Rage the lowered cost of building the field this way? I'm curious about the "delta" cost.

Estimates we have made for the cost of an "official" field range from $9-14K depending on whether you include 3/8" plexiglas, what year it was, and whether purchased from the official source or build-your-own.

The wooden field built by SCRRF to plans from Mark Koors cost approximately $800 for materials. That was for the 2008 season so it would probably be a little more now.

The Delta Field will probably be somewhere in between those two. I would further guess that the cost will be closer to the low end of that range. Say $1-2K. It would probably be affordable by a top flight team.

A note on field designs. Before 2004 the fields were made of individual pieces held together with KeyKlamps and bolts. These older fields were not up to restraining modern robots.

In 2004 a modularized version was created whch greatly simplified set-up, I would call this version "Alpha". Alpha had no bolts, the parts just slip together and are mostly self-locking.

In 2005 we switched to three teams/alliance so the field had to be re-designed. The result was the "Beta" version we have used since then. It has many improved features over Alpha. They are not the sort of things a team would notice, but they sure make the life of the guy putting the field together easier.

"Gamma" is a wood field, originally designed to be used if for some reason a truck was stranded and FIRST could not get a field to a regional. The wood field can be constructed with lumber from your nearest Home Depot or Lowes, in about a day with 6-8 good carpenters who would of course have the proper tools. SCRRF's field would be the Gamma version. It has held up much better than we originlly planned, though minor repairs are needed after almost every use.

Naturally the next stage in field evolution would be "Delta" a design that is supposedly optimized for minimum cost of construction and maximum availability of hardware. I, for one, am anxious to find out how it worked out this weekend and the details of its construction.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

Estimates we have made for the cost of an "official" field range from $9-14K depending on whether you include 3/8" plexiglas, what year it was, and whether purchased from the official source or build-your-own.

That price is only if labor is free. The official fields cost about $50k. The shear number of custom fabricated components and welded joints makes the field very expensive (the billable rate for each of these is at least $55/hour in New England).

By the looks of the new Delta field, there is a significantly higher portion of COTS components, thus immediately benefiting from huge savings.