Finally the year?

[Gary Dillard]

I understand Dave Lavery's team (116) did some experimentation this weekend at IRI involving performance of their robot after being completely saturated in water. Were they trying to get a head start? Could this finally be the year that the annual "underwater competition" rumor becomes a reality?

[santosh]

Yeah, but I think it would be very hard because of the momentum change that you have from air and water. Turning wouldn't be too fun. But maybe there will be water elements?
I would still love to see a water game

[Beth Sweet]

Any ideas on whether or not the robots would do something like corral rubber duckies in the water?

[Joe Matt]

Not to crush anyone's hopes, but I don't think Dave would release info about next years game to his team and his team only. But on the other hand, mabey Heidi has some picture she won't post in exchange for information....

[Arefin Bari]

::Sings::
Well somebody told me...
That we gonna have robots...
which swims under water...
That no one never had...
It's not confidential...
Dave got potential
::Sings::

... do keep in mind that I was working with team 116 and talking to Dave in their pit on friday morning.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

::Sings::
Well somebody told me...
That we gonna have robots...
which swims under water...
That no one never had...
It's not confidential...
Dave got potential
::Sings::

... do keep in mind that I was working with team 116 and talking to Dave in their pit on friday morning.

So first we had we had Stair Way to Heaven as a clue, now The Killers?

[Freddy Schurr]

I think that it would never happen just because of the electronics. You get a little bit of water in it and you are out for the competition.

[alphastryk]

^^ agreed

[Arefin Bari]

I had the chance to look at team 116's electrical box, it was put together VERY nicely. I am sure there is a way we can prevent water from going inside an electrical box if it is sealed everywhere. Yes there are a lot of problems that will pop up solving the problem, but thats the reason we do engineering for. Apparanty... we can take a look at some underwater vehicle and see how they run their wires.

Its easier to solve a problem when you have a positive attitude about it.

[Conor Ryan]

Ok, if there is going to be the much anticipated underwater competition I think 2 things would happen.

1.) MAJOR Kit changes, I'd say the major parts that are used will change completely, an example being the Motors, Transmission (no more steel gears) Controller, all will change because of water proofing/leakage potential.

2.) Possible removal of the human player. I work with batteries as a job and Moisture=Awful and Batteries (even non-spillable and sealed) risk the chance of being exposed to water, and thus shorting out and sending a 12 volt current through Little Johnny the HP's body.

[mechanicalbrain]

okay think about FIRSTs rules. our team was penalized for not touching those triangles your robot is supposed to rest on even though it was completely on top of it! aparently it was a safety issue (i remind you our robot was COMPLETELY over top of the traingle). now lets think what possible problem would FIRST have with sticking 12 volt batteries in water. although their are plenty of educational programs that do just this and it is possible i just don't see FIRST letting us do it (not that we cant or that it couldnt be safe).

[Cory]

A six pack of dew to the first taker says there won't be any water, or liquid used as a game "component" next year.

[mechanicalbrain]

i beat you to the punch cory! look above you.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

I had the chance to look at team 116's electrical box, it was put together VERY nicely. I am sure there is a way we can prevent water from going inside an electrical box if it is sealed everywhere. Yes there are a lot of problems that will pop up solving the problem, but thats the reason we do engineering for. Apparanty... we can take a look at some underwater vehicle and see how they run their wires.

Its easier to solve a problem when you have a positive attitude about it.

FIRST wouldn't let teams use the old, non garbage connectors for the battery leads, because a few teams couldn't use them properly, causing a safety hazard, so I don't see a snowball's chance in hell of introducing water to electronics, where a lot more than a few teams will screw up big time, ruining thousands of dollars worth of electronics, and creating very big safety risks.

No matter what FIRST does to ensure safety at a competition, the potential for disaster is unimagineably large when teams are unsupervised at their own facilities.

[mechanicalbrain]

Cory i know Ive said this before. feel free to criticize and yes you mentioned valid points but please at least try to be helpful with the advice. try to add something positive to a post. as to the robotics using water yes it could be done safely but FIRST would probably worry a bit. i highly recommend you experiment with this although safely as it would be VERY cool to see a underwater robot using FIRST parts. i think my main concern would be the motors unless you can protect them i recommend putting them inside any electrical box and then running flexible shafts out to the actual box.