NXT jousting: yet another lance
Dearies,
Regardless what the actual settings for NXT jousting will be in the end, no doubt a requisite to be provided by a every attending robot will be the lance.
As it is still subject of discussion if we will provide a (set of?) standard lance(s) to be used by anybody or just its dimensions, here's nevertheless my first draft for one (adding a buddy next to Jim's contribution to our armoury).
Matthias Paul
Comments
I would personally favor using two 7 hold beams versus the 5 hole beams you have for the connection portion.
Crude ASCII drawing alert!
OOOOO
OOO-O-O
Connecting 2 away (O-O) verus 1 away (OO) is traditionally much stronger and more stable.
Overall... I think you've got the lance defined... very well defined.
If Brian is accepting, let's run with this one (or until we encounter any issues with it -weight, etc.).
I LIKE IT!
I've got one more day of "REAL WORK" and then I can start spending some more time on the Joust project. Assuming this is our lance, how about we discuss here (and allow others to comment) on the decision to build a mount and a rider or simply a mount. Things to think about:
1. Do we want something to "knock off" like a rider or other object?
2. Will the object be to knock the other bot over (tipped to left or right or completely backwards)?
Deciding if we need a rider or not will help us to move forward. Rider or not, we'll need to define the dimensions of the bot in terms of where target areas are located, max width of bot, etc.
Jim
Same with the connectors: the 7 holed ones looked pretty clumsy what conflicted with my desire for designing the lance as slender as possible.
Just wait...I'm changing it this very minute with 7 holed connectors and 15 holed head ... hm ..looks a bit top-heavy for my opinion (image to come in no time flat).
I agree: some fundamental decisions have to be taken right now.
Fisrt of all, I vote for: yes, let's have a rider "loosely coupled" to the mount (what that means is yet to be defined), to be knocked by his/her opponent.
For I think that this is a viewy feature that is more or less expected by a Joust's audience (in particular by children).
And the main objective of a combatant should be to knock this rider from his/her mount.
Another aspect is the decision about having some kind of bar to guide and to separate the opponents.
Again, I vote for: yes, let's have a bar in the middle, parallel to the opponents' direction of "riding" against each other.
Reason: this will help the robot knights to navigate and will provide a structure to the jousting arena. It's easy to determine when a particular sweep is finished, then.
Last question to be decided before adressing dimensions: what of target points when no rider gets knocked off?
I think we should leave that to the 2nd iteration. Once we have defined the correct constraints, dimensions and rules, have overcome the difficulties in finding and knocking off the opponent and have gathered some experience in NXT jousting, we could make for the advanced targeting stuff.
What do the others think?
Matthias Paul