Question about an unusual driverstaion

Hey guys,
My team though if we can use a Dance Dance Mania Carpet for moving the robot.
Is this legal?/

Thanks :rolleyes:

You should post it on the official Q&A. A few years ago, someone asked the GDC that, and the GDC said it was legal and wanted to see it in action :slight_smile: , so I would expect the GDC to give a similar answer this year.

Make sure it fits between the driver station wall and the line you have to wait behind. At worst, you need to have it slightly folded so it’s not over the line before the tele-op period starts.

How does one come to this idea in the first place?

While cool (you really should get it to work), it’s probably not legal… <R81> states

The OPERATOR CONSOLE designed by the team must fit on the 60” wide by 12” deep shelf in the ALLIANCE STATION (excluding any items that are held or worn by the DRIVERS during the MATCH).

The dancing pad would be bigger than the shelf, and it would not be held or worn, thus it wouldn’t be in compliance with this rule. Ask the GDC to be sure though!

hmm a teamate of mine thought it will be cool to drive the robot and use it like that. that’s it :rolleyes:

i will tahnk you:rolleyes:

The GDC has said yes to the dance pad in games where this rule existed. Obviously clarification would be needed again, but I wouldn’t lose hope…

While cool, you may want to consider if this is really the most practical way to drive your robot. Will you use another device to throttle speed? How will this impact your turning? Will your driver “dancing” around in the station make it more difficult for the human players and coaches? How fast is the reaction time of your driver on the dance pad compared to a driver using joysticks or a game pad?

ofcourse we will using another device. we will use the regular logitech jostick in order to controll the speed,turning and all the movings of the robot. the dance pad will be only for the second driver - for shooting balls,get on the tower,tip other robots ect.

All of my previous statements (save the one about turning) still apply. You’re going to want to really consider if this is the most effective method of controlling your robot.

Keep in mind the reaction speed of your foot stomping is significantly (half a second) slower than similar operations with your hand. To quote Dean, “this is probably important!”

Idan! I can’t believed you exposed our top secret weapon to the world! XD
Anyway, after you went home, we did some tests - and it works! XD
Not as good as we hoped but it can be improved, right after we fix all the connectivity problems we encountered after that ><".

For the others, i guess we’ll be using the good all joysticks. the DDR is just an experiment for fun… hopefully, we’ll post some photos/videos soon :]

and Idan… shushhh, you’ll might expose our you know what if you won’t choose your words carefully around here… ;].