When working with the robotics team I throw out lots of ideas. Some are good, a few are great. Others....well, nobody is perfect and I figure I'm further away than most.
For tournament matches it is three robots versus three. The "sides" are identified by color, so you need to make sets of protective, padded bumpers in red and blue and be able to change them quickly. Well this year we have an "over the bumper" intake system, and are anticipating a rather vigorous game with respect to defense. This could result in a bit of scuffing up of our swell red and blue competition bumpers. So I thought it would be nice to have a set just for practice use. Testing before events and use during the pre-tournament practice matches the day before the competition. So far, so good.
Well we had a bunch of the orange fabric that was used in the Robot School "pumpkin bot". I said just use that. It was neatly done, with everyone adding their signature and well wishes.
Unfortunately this is the exact color of this year's game piece, and with lots of teams using sophisticated vision tracking, going out on the practice floor with these bumpers would probably mean the autonomous phase of the match would feature up to five robots - friend and foe alike - zeroing in on us and trying to pick us up and launch us. Sigh. I had to admit my error and ask the long suffering team member to pull this off and replace it with a patchwork of red and blue.
She got to wear the 5826 sash while doing so. That was a better idea of mine, recycling old bumpers into things. We have a sash, a cape and this year might build a small sofa for the pit crew to sit on. Now, if we can just get the robot finished and reliable they might even have a chance to sit down!
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