The world championship has elevated fields again this year. Our robotics club thought that it would be a great idea to build one for ourselves.
Has anyone build one before, and if so, can you post pictures, BOM, or designs?
Our school normally uses the school’s risers that are used for whatever choir events or whatnot.
I have some designs of some risers, but I don’t have them with me right now (expect them later today or tomorrow). I plan on building them this summer, and they cost a couple hundred bucks for a couple of sets, I believe.
Hi
That is a good idea. The viewing angle under the troughs, when driving, makes a big difference, so worth getting familiar with. We don’t have a raised field. Whatever you use for construction, make sure it is very rigid and can be adjusted to be dead flat because any slight, raised ridges or changes of angle of the field surface can play havoc with low positioned intakes, especially spatulas.
Cheers, Paul
Before Worlds last year we practiced sitting down. 
I don’t know how close this really is to the angle you view a raised field at, but it is a very inexpensive solution.
Just sit down and drive your robots. Definitely the cheapest…
Let me see if we have pictures of the raised field we used last year for practice. I can not remember if we did a 2’ or 3’ height though. I want to say 2’
The match loading of robots was greatly effected by the raised fields last year. The gate raising was quite tricky for our smaller roboteers too. It is very good to practice at the raised height.
Basic construction of 12’ joists every 2 feet capped by end joists.
[LIST=1]
*] - 9 of the 12’ 2x10 floor joists fit 2’ on center.
*] - 3 of the 4’x8’ Subfloor Plywood cut in 4x4 sheets tongue and groove fit together
*] - #10 4” structural screws (or get 14 metal joist hangars and nail them in)
*] - At least 4 of the 4x4 posts – you can get away with just the corners and be legal still according to the specs we found. Add more if you want.
*] - (at least) 8 Bolts for the 4x4’s – 2 sets per direction. You don’t want the stage to fall down.
*] - At least 1 set of stairs (buy a prefab set or make your own) – we were against a wall so we did not have a railing. With the big wall in the middle this year, you may want two sets of stairs to avoid tripping over the trough and falling off the stage.
[/LIST]
Assemble the basic floor frame on the floor, then raise into place and bolt it in with lots of help or a bunch of saw horses. Level it and then screw down the plywood subfloor and add in the stairs. Assemble the field as normal on top of the raised stage and be sure to screw down the walls to the subfloor so they don’t move and cause havok.
We limited the number of people allowed on the raised field for safety purposes. And no shoes on the field too but that’s just to keep the field clean.
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Hi! Our school’s director gave us the go ahead to build an elevated Vex field. 
Do you have the specs you found? Or tell us were to find it. Thanks a lot!
Team 2247B from Puerto Rico.
We are looking into building a raised field for next year, but our only concern is that the field won’t be level. Have you had this issue, if so how did you get around it?
We put fields on lab tables because our instructor believes it is a waste of space. We store equipments under it and will have climb into the field. When practicing we stand on tables. You might consider this idea, put the field on the table and stand on something when practicing. But of course it was inconvenient for us in toss up.
I like the way you think! :D:D
Nope. Leveling is not a problem for us. Transporting it is a bit tough so it just sits. So you can trim it down to make it level once in place or wait to drill the final holes on the posts until you level it.
we have our fields set up on folding tables
Exactly. We needed about 20 people to transfer a fully built toss up field to the table.
I still like the idea of practicing driving sitting down. Easiest, cheapest, and fastest