Hi everyone! Thanks for the wonderful replies to last weeks question. Here we go for this week!
**Question of the Week (7/26/04):
If you could choose a playingfield surface other than carpet, what would you like it to be? Why?**
As always, you can suggest any questions to me by contacting me through PM, e-mail ([email protected]), or AIM (QuietRiverRage1).
Have Fun!
-Andy Grady
I know it’s completely implausible, but I’d love to see a game on ice. It would just be cool and present a new challenge. Or maybe (warning, another crazy thing from my mind) a surface like they have on air hockey tables and make it so the robot would hafta glide. I think that would be cool…
How about shreadded cardboard? 
I really think ice would be cool. It would require teams to worry alot more about traction and driving.
dirt/soil - bots would have to build wheels with tires to prevent dirt clogging up the gears and getting in with all the electonics, and the tires would need strong traction. This would be tough to put together but would be fun to see!
It would be interesting to see a combination of very different materials on the field. For example, rubber matting and the relatively polycarbonate from this year. If the game was designed properly, there could be some robots that would try to stay on one surface because they perform better on it.
Velcro…
Imagine the playing field with one side…the tires with the other…
The power needed…The Sound Made!!!
Positioning would conquer!
I like the idea of a lot of different surfaces…
If I had to pick one… rocks. Lots of large rocks. That would be hard to do…
I have to agree with the idea of different surfaces… I remember seeing a demo on TV for the Segway when it first came out and they showed it traversing gravel, sand, water (puddle) as well as a smooth asphalt surface.
Of course, people who help BUILD the playing fields (like my husband) will kill me for that idea!
How about… um… tile or concrete? Something that every team has available to practice on… not very creative but highly practical.
If not, sand. We got plenty of that out here in Phoenix. ;p
I have to agree … praticality would be nice at this point … but it would also be boring!! 
So sand would be absolutely interesting … I wonder if it makes a difference what kind of sand it is though … because sand from different places have different textures!! :rolleyes: But oh well, something else to think about!
I would definetly like to see what creative ideas teams would come up with in order to keep the sand from blowing up into everything!! 
Many times on these forums people have suggested using some sort of very tough, not smoothe surface. I agree that it would make constructing the robot much more of a challenge, but I think it will never happen because it puts most kinds of autonomous modes out of the reach of all but the most advanced teams. Look how many teams had trouble this year on carpet with a field of exactly known dimensions…
Very Punny.
I think a field with different type of sufaces is cool. Like this past season and 2003. maybe with two extremes like ice and then rubber or something like that. But I think that carpet is too old.
frankly i like the practical choice of concrete…i liked that grating in 2003…i also like the fact that the surface changed from the carpet to the grating…
Sure, ice is a nice idea. But why not some snow on concrete? Wet concrete? Concrete with oil spilt on it? Why does concrete seem like such a great idea? Is it because it is so concrete? :rolleyes:
So yeah, I would go with concrete. I know someone mentioned it before, but thought I’d add to it.
As a voice of reason I like carpet. The big thing is all of the idea so far entitle a lot of work for setup and tear down. The base for the venues change from place to place. We have had ice with hard plastic covering. Ice with fibre board covering, hardwood flooring, concrete and asphalt. I can just see us trying to bring in 3 trucks of dirt into a gym with hardwood flooring.
yeah i agree carpeting is goin on forever— concrete is simple and easy for everyone to practice on–it’s everywhere and so is title–but yeah not much fun–
now ice umm hard in florida to just get ice to practice on now-- all well0-it’s all good
other surfaces–lol–rocks well interesting–tough but would be a nice challenge-- how about grass and dirt and all that stuff-- just keep it junk out of the gearboxes that’s all
as long as it’s easy to set up i’m all good-- we don’t have that much to store stuff and place to practice on my team-- don’t want the school to kick us out now 
happy thinking of new surfaces!!!
just a little twist in this thread… the field size…
the field size has been same for a few years… does anyone think that the size should be changed that way more obstacles can be added in the game…?
also all the ideas that were pointed out in the thread sounds really interesting…
You can’t really change the field size to the venues for the regionals. Like UCF you barely fit the playing field inside the gym.
Now for types of surfaces for a playing field… what about plywood? I mean we use enough of it to make the components of the field. Actually if there is going to be multiple surfaces like in 2003, a simple field like the one in 2002 would be nice.