First alliance to build a life size Woodie replica out of glazed and sprinkle donuts…yum
Has anyone thought about a boat challenge. The play field being a gaint pool!!!
Hmm, that would make for one interesting autonomous mode. If your calculations are incorrect by just a hair, the worst you could do is knock out a judge or the announcer.
I want to see y’all try to get something like that through security at an airport. 
Been there, done that…
(and you DON’T want to know what I have in my carry-on suitcase right now, while I am sitting in the Cleveland Airport) (trust me)
-dave
…and we’re off.
(Maybe I’m a bit jumpy after my laptop set off the bomb-sniffing machine at JFK four times last night. I know it’s dirty, but sheesh.)
Could it be the complete manual for the 2008 game? Oh boy! Oh boy!
Or maybe it’s a Popular Mechanics magazine, a Robots magazine, or a Servo magazine.
Or the remote control for your “Other car”
Or it may just be an empty carry-on suitcase to put stuff in later.
Just kidding… I can wait another month for the new game (I hope). I’m pumped and ready to start. I’m getting more sleep and doing my homework whenever I can in preparation for the new season.
doesnt say hamster hmmm…
pre-build season giddyness… I love it!
So, just for fun I built one, using 3" schedule 40 PVC (non-pressure rated) and standard caps. Overall assembled length is 10" and it weighs ~1.5 lb. Inside I placed a 2.188" diameter steel ball, taken from one of the largest ball bearings that Emerson uses. The ball also weighs ~1.5 lb. (Don’t expect to get them cheap – motors that use that size ball are rated for 4000 horsepower and stand about fifteen feet tall. Production quantities are small relative to most FRC components.) So the total weight is about 3 lb. and the center of gravity shifts about six inches when the ball rolls from one end to the other.
As you can easily imagine, the weighted capsule is unwieldy! Grab it in the middle, tilt it slightly, and it will torque your wrist. Holding it level is a challenge.
A diabolical gamepiece if ever there was one. 
@ Richard
can you say scooper bots?
-vivek
Yeah, but wait until the robot stops short and inertia keeps all the balls moving…
There go the game pieces! 
Of course, if the ball were made of tungsten, it would weigh about 3.809 pounds - about 2.5 times as much as the container itself. The dynamic properties of such an object would be … interesting.
-dave
First team to put all the mini Dean Kamen statues on the mini Segways wins!
Interesting indeed. Such an object would stand nearly upright with the ball in the rounded PVC endcap. It might even walk a little ways, end-over-end, when pushed. Like a large “Mexican Jumping Bean,” to recall a popular toy from decades ago.
However, FIRST is unlikely to build such objects in quantity. Ingots of tungsten are going for about $13/lb these days. Worked into balls, the cost per pound would go a bit higher.
Hmm. Highly unstable, heavy objects being manipulated by FRC robots? Autonomously? :eek:
We’ve been doing that with Freshmen for years.
… and so it begins.
That would be a lot fun!!!
But how would FIRST make them is the question…
a robot has to build a cube shape with ‘breakable’ poles (like what you use to put up a tent) but the claws are limited to only 3 ‘fingers’. The alliances can work together… but only in autonomous. and of course, the human player can hand the robot the poles but that’s it…
i like my idea…
yeah…
lol
sorry but, magnet showcase last night until 9 o’clock and pre-season jitters are NOT good when combined together:eek:
I like the football idea but 6 aside robot and human player(with alot of padding) football