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 Robotics / 19595
19594  |  19596
Subject: 
Re: Newbie has an idea - Nascar style racing?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Tue, 26 Nov 2002 03:21:27 GMT
Original-From: 
Rob Limbaugh <rlimbaugh@#AntiSpam#greenfieldgroup.com>
Viewed: 
890 times
  
Printing the layout on paper would be expensive for a home user that • does not refill their own cartridges.  Paper won't
stay down unless taped, and it could be torn easily with a brick
corner during a crash.

I guess so - but it's easily repaired and highly reproducible.

Partially why it is expensive.  The fact that it is easily damaged makes
maintennance that much more expensive.  Not to mention constant replacing of
paper track would eat up valuable event time.

But... paint non-adhesive white linoleum tiles a different color (or • shade) for their function.  Tiles
and paint are cheap and universally available.  They are pretty
easy to line up against each other, too.

Yes - but getting it reproducible would be tricky.  If I use slightly
different shades of grey paint - or shinier paint than you do - then
my robots may not do well on your track.  That kind of thing matters
in competitions.

Pick a color and publish the mix codes for that particular color, brand, and
sheen on the web so that others may go to a hardware store and request that
particular mix.  Can't do that with inkjet or laser printers.

Painting a bunch of concentric shapes in a dozen shades of grey paint
isn't very easy to do either.

Stencils

Incidentally, this won't solve collision problems.  A forward facing
light sensor won't solve side collisions or wheel touching.  Besides,
collisions are a good thing... it makes a builder have to trade weight
for structural integrity and ads an element of excitement to any race.

Yes - but if there is no way for a robot to avoid a collision, it
takes a lot of skill out of the race - everything ends up being a bit
of a lottery.  It's no fun if I'm way out in the lead and smack into
the back of a slow robot.  Unless you want to turn this into robotic
Sumo, it's not going to be a very skillful competition.

Limit the number of racers to something reasonable... 2 or 3 bots.

Perhaps the Spybot bricks would be more suitable to racing if the
multitude of IR sensors in them can be used to detect light levels.

Yes - but with the sensors and the motors all built into one solid
lump, won't all the robots be pretty much identical?


All race cars for a given class of racing are pretty much identical.  With
all things "chassis" being pretty equal, that means the competition is based
more on coding and steering than overall bot structure.  In real racing, you
can have the top-notch car, but if the driver doesn't perform well or is
involved in a crash that totals the car, they may not win.  Guess it all
depends on what the overall learning experience is supposed to be.

- Rob



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Newbie has an idea - Nascar style racing?
 
(...) > stay down unless taped, and it could be torn easily with a brick corner during a crash. I guess so - but it's easily repaired and highly reproducible. (...) > and paint are cheap and universally available. They are pretty easy to line up (...) (22 years ago, 25-Nov-02, to lugnet.robotics)

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