As the season winds down, it’s time for planning for Worlds. The fields at Worlds are raised (24" Middle School, 36" High School). We are in the process of building a platform to put our field on so we can practice.
But I have a questions (see the survey) You can check all the answers that apply to your team.
We competed mostly on flat fields, but one competition had raised fields. It wasn’t really a problem, except that our shortest member could not match-load the robot while the lift was up. However, our taller members could. I have practiced driving on my knees on a flat field and it is similar, so that is a good option if you don’t have access to a raised field to practice.
Well that wouldn’t work because people in the arena at Anaheim wouldn’t be able to see if the fields weren’t raised and at small competitions, if the fields were raised sometimes the spectators sitting in small chairs or standing wouldn’t be able to see.
Our team is rather lazy, so when practicing for Worlds we sit down to simulate a raised field. I found at Worlds last year that the raised field made it easier to focus on the action of the robots. However it also made it harder to see the things on the other side of the ladder, but that’s not an issue this year.
Our robot is really tall, though. It maxes at 42". I wonder if we’d be able to match load it when the lift was up.
On Saturday I saw some robots that wheel around the field at pretty much full height (which was cool, even though they were 30" tall they were still pretty stable). It will be interesting to see how our team works out the issues on the raised practice field. Last year it only took two matches to get them acclimated.