Double Trouble (FIRST)
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''Double Trouble'' was the 1999 game for the
FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition operated by ''FIRST''®. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work to build robots capable of competing in that year's game. Robots c ...
, and the first game to feature alliances.


Field

The playing field is a carpeted, rectangular area. Alliances score points by positioning "floppies," their robots, and a "puck" on the playing field. "Floppies" are light-weight, pillow-like objects with Velcro-loop material located in its centre and around its perimeter. The "puck" is a short, octagonal platform that rolls freely on castor wheels. Around the perimeter of the field are four stations for human players, who may throw floppies to each other or onto the playing field. Two additional areas around the field are for the human players who control the robots. At the start of each match, each human player station contains three of the alliance's floppies. Four floppies per alliance are located on the playing field. The floppies are color-coded to identify alliance ownership.


Robots

Each robot can weigh up to , and must start each match small enough to fit inside a 30" x 36" x 48" space. The robots are powered by two Skil 12
volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...
rechargeable batteries and use motors from Skil, Delco, Fischer-Price, and Delphi Interior and Lighting, speed controllers from Tekin, pumps from McCord Winn Textron, air cylinders and valves from Numatics, Inc., and a programmable control system supplied by FIRST. Drivers use joysticks from CH Products and switches from Honeywell to remotely control the robots via a radio link which uses RNet wireless modems from
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
.


Scoring

Each match is two minutes long. Alliances receive one point for each of their floppies that are over the playing field, not in contact with the surface of the playing field, and less than 8 feet above the surface of the playing field. Floppies that are 8 feet or more above the playing field earn 3 points for the alliance it belongs to. Any robot on the puck multiplies its alliance's score by 3. If a puck is entirely on one side of the dividing line that runs through the middle of the field, the alliance whose robot operator stations are furthest from the puck will multiply its score by 2. Tournament play consisted of seeding and elimination rounds. Seeding was based on greatest number of points scored, not actual number of games won. This led to a dominance of offensive tactics during seeding, and defensive tactics during elimination rounds.


Events

The following regional events were held in 1999: ;Week 1 * NASA Ames California Open -
NASA Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
, Moffett Field, California * Motorola Midwest Open - William Rainey Harper College, Chicago, Illinois ;Week 2 * NASA Kennedy Space Center Open -
Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...
, Merritt Island, Florida * FIRST Southwest Open -
Space Center Houston Space Center Houston is a science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was designated a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014. The organization is owned by NASA, and operated unde ...
, Houston, Texas ;Week 3 * Philadelphia Alliance Open -
Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ;Week 4 * UTC New England Open - Meadows Music Theater, Hartford, Connecticut * Johnson & Johnson Mid-Atlantic Open -
Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
, New Brunswick, New Jersey ;Week 5 * Great Lakes Open -
Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public university, public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal ...
, Ypsilanti, Michigan The national championship was held at Epcot Center, Disney World, Orlando, Florida.


References


External links

{{FIRST 1999 in robotics FIRST Robotics Competition games