Does anyone know what kind of tape they use for the center line of the field?
Is it some sort of reflective tape or regular duct tape?
Thx.:)99% sure it’s gaffer’s tape. That’s what’s used for the rest of the field, too. No, it won’t be reflective if it’s gaffer’s tape. Just a nice shiny white color.
I’ve set up fields since 2007, and I haven’t seen hide or hair of duct tape in any of those years–it’s all gaffer’s tape.
By chance are you trying to come up with ways of detecting the white line? If so i would be interested to know what you have tried so far. were looking to do the same thing.
There was an optical sensor included in the kit in 2003 and 2004 (I believe made by Banner). You had to be directly over the line though, which wouldn’t do you any good this year since you can’t cross over during auton.
I don’t have my rule book handy and honestly don’t want to go digging though PDF’s right now either. But is it contact with the line or going completely over it with the robot. That draws the penalty? If its the latter then the opto sensory might still work.
Have you thought about sing the current KOP camera for line detection only. You could have it pointed out at a determine angel and then use the vision tool to say something along the lines of “when line enters lower half of frame stop or turn or do whatever you want to do with the robot” this would give the robot enough time to react and may make programming a bit easier.
Matthew
As our team interprets the rule, it’s going over the line completely that incurs a penalty. But you might want to ask the FIRST Q&A, if you want a definite answer.
You cant completely cross over so long as part of your robot is still in your zone you are ok and penalty free 
Already asked and answered on the Q&A
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=13841
Under Rule <G30>, the ROBOT would receive a PENALTY when it “completely” crosses the CENTER LINE. Thus, the PENALTY is assessed when when all parts of the ROBOT (i.e. the vertical projection of the entire ROBOT) cross the line.
Does anyone know what model that sensor might have been. Not sure where to find a KOP list from 03 or 04 as this is our teams 3rd season only.
Do you trust an autonomously controlled robot to not go over that line, while straddling it?
I don’t.
I trust my robot, now if i could just trust my programmers :rolleyes: lol
Your programmers should always be trusted. Usually those pesky “bugs” are errors in the computer reading the code incorrectly, not the humans typing it wrong. 