Game Mat Wrinkle Removal

[dna1990]

An old topic, but due to shipping costs - one I expect we see again with NF.

Our tournament this weekend used very large cardboard tubes, probably 6" diameter or more. Mats were unfolded and rolled around these tubes and taped. Then stored vertically. No waves, no wrinkles. Well, a few cases you could tell where a wrinkle had been, but no ill effect on the bots that I could discern.

Made for a bulky box to store, but made for a much more consistent playing field.

[jeffd]

Last year I did the reverse roll onto a 4" PVC pipe for 2 days followed by being flat on the table covered with a second sheet of weighted plywood. Result = Nice smooth mat and the robot ran great. At the competition, however, the mats were very wavy and the robot was erratic following lines.

Next year I plan to make only a mild attempt to remove the wrinkles in addition to adding airplane flood lights to my basement.

[Tom Mosher]

Originally Posted by jeffd

Last year I did the reverse roll onto a 4" PVC pipe for 2 days followed by being flat on the table covered with a second sheet of weighted plywood. Result = Nice smooth mat and the robot ran great. At the competition, however, the mats were very wavy and the robot was erratic following lines.

Next year I plan to make only a mild attempt to remove the wrinkles in addition to adding airplane flood lights to my basement.

That's another great reminder that if your team designs their robot to run in ideal practice conditions, they won't be prepared for the conditions of the real world (which the tournament environment simulates very nicely).

[philso]

Originally Posted by Tom Mosher

That's another great reminder that if your team designs their robot to run in ideal practice conditions, they won't be prepared for the conditions of the real world (which the tournament environment simulates very nicely).

This is a life lesson. I work with Engineers who design products such that all the pieces have to be manufactured with all dimensions accurate to 1/1000 inch. The Assembly people curse them every day.

[Tom Mosher]

Originally Posted by philso

This is a life lesson. I work with Engineers who design products such that all the pieces have to be manufactured with all dimensions accurate to 1/1000 inch. The Assembly people curse them every day.

If they're building rocket motors, maybe that's an important requirement. Otherwise, have them come work the assembly line for a few days, then send them back to engineering with a new appreciation for tolerance stack-ups.

[timdavid]

I was happy to see the email from FIRST today that the mats will ship rolled up next year! Hurray!
Also, having the LEGO parts packaged by mission model is nice touch, especially for younger teams. For older teams, I think the coaches should open all the bags and mix things up, just to make it more of a challenge.

-->Two (2) BIG Packing Changes for NATURE’S FURY
Beginning in 2013…
(1) The FLL sets will be delivered again as they had been back in 2011 – in a long box with the mat rolled. This should provide better storage of the sets for the teams and less hassle of flattening the mat.
(2) We are introducing “element pre-pack”. This means that the LEGO elements for the Mission Models will be pre-packed in bags with numbers that correspond to a Mission station (ex. Mission station #1 will have all bag(s) labeled #1, Mission station #2 will have all bag(s) labeled #2, etc…). If you need to build mission #4, just open all the bags with #4! How easy it that?!

[Dean Hystad]

Originally Posted by timdavid

I was happy to see the email from FIRST today that the mats will ship rolled up next year! Hurray!
Also, having the LEGO parts packaged by mission model is nice touch, especially for younger teams. For older teams, I think the coaches should open all the bags and mix things up, just to make it more of a challenge.

No sorting? What is the fun of that? If I have a team next year I'll have to empty all the bags into a single container before the build meeting. I'm serious. There's a lot to be said for team members engaging each other in a search for the parts they need. It is the best exercise there is for developing your LEGO vocabulary and that really comes in handy later in the season.

[dna1990]

Yea, I guess people will think I am funny. But I am with Dean on the sorted bags. I mean that is what is wrong overall anyway. Too many kids that "build" page by page with detailed instructions. No experience anymore to just do themselves. "Kits" of any kind, not just Lego, are not what young minds need.

But I am still in favor of making mats fairly consistent. I get the real world argument, I do. But in a short FLL season, there is not much time to learn some good navigation basics if you can't count on the base field. And most of us and area sponsors pony up plenty of time and money, we should hold tournaments to a higher standard for basic table, mats, and lighting. Yes, of course there is some level of tolerance to be expected - but we should work to minimize that at this stage so kids can focus on the fundamentals. Call it a lab environment...it is not real world, but there are good reasons why we try to remove variables from a lab - to isolate on what is important for that moment.

But yea, sorted bags - was an insult to teams everywhere. And what I think was a cry from too many adults who get frustrated putting the models together. What? Why no, they should not be the ones making the models. Even for a mass build effort like tournament - you should seek out kids, even outside of FLL.

Do you dump it on the living room floor and walk away, maybe not for some ages. Give them a few box lids, etc - make extra printouts of the build sheets, etc. But that is a great time to begin bonding and for coaches to start observing the new team dynamics and making notes.

[Tom Mosher]

I'm happy to see that they'll identify the parts bags for each mission model. The team I mentored for Senior Solutions never did manage to construct all the mission models, because it was impossible for seven kids to find all the right parts. They only met for two hours a week for 10 weeks, and in that time they had to invent their project, learn the NXT technology, develop mission strategies, and implement some missions. Having seven kids wrestle over one pile of parts just wasn't an efficient use of time. If the parts are pre-bagged, they can take the bags home and bring back the completed model for the second meeting. That will save a huge ton of time and make the meetings much more efficient.

[timdavid]

Originally Posted by Dean Hystad

No sorting? What is the fun of that?

Actually, I think the biggest beneficiary of the pre-sorted parts will be the volunteers who build the mission models for use at tournaments. I like building with LEGOs as much as almost anyone, but it makes things go a little faster if the parts are least partially sorted. Heck, even the parts for the Unimog I'm building come in numbered bags.

What FIRST is not telling us is that next season there is only one really large mission model, so that the "Nature's Fury" parts come in a single large bag labeled "1"...