Does your team run driver practice in a temporary space? How is your practice field configured for easy setup/takedown?
We are currently using a classroom for driver practice/autonomous testing (layout below). The room must be re-set to “classroom mode” at the end of each session.
The previous method (unroll a marked carpet, place game pieces on top of it, add some tape around the edges) just can’t hold up to the reaction forces from a swerve drive robot. (think carpet that looks like lasagna noodles)
Have you had this problem and found a solution? I’m currently thinking along the lines of 4’x8’ sheets of 1/2 ply with carpet stapled on to them. Get’s laid down on the floor and then stacked up at the end?
how would the p-wood sheets be fastened to each other or the floor?
would warping be an expected issue?
If you have any experience with making a more robust but still temporary practice field I’d love your input before purchasing supplies
Also, in general, do people typically experience carpet damage (practice field, not competition) from swerve? We typically get 5+ years of use from competition carpet. Most (all) damage is caused from deadheading the robot against a wall and doing burnouts.
Sorry if it’s off topic and I won’t dwell on it, but just curious.
We rolled out new carpet at the end of January and will need to replace it for next season.
This picture is from right after champs and we have a lot of new rips as we’ve been training more drivers. Been tape patching an dead heading runs as much as we can.
Our space is about 25’x40’ so we are ripping up a smaller area than a full field of carpet. I would attribute a lot of our damage to first year swerve + using black tread.
1072 made 4x8 “carpet tiles”. Basically, you take some carpet and staple-gun it to a 4x8 of plywood. There is a thin frame along the edges beneath the plywood to provide some additional structure. The wood locks together using little 3d printed parts, but that feature is very finicky and needs work. That said, the carpet on these tiles holds up really well for daily practice. Store them lying on the 8’ edge along a wall.
