Carpet at 2024 Events
Jul 19, 2023 Written by Collin Fultz, FIRST Robotics Competition Senior Program Director
TL/DR – The carpet that will be used for 2024 FIRST® Robotics Competition events will be the same carpet that was used in 2023 (and prior) seasons.
More Detail:
The carpet historically used at FIRST Robotics Competition events is no longer commercially available. A few teams have already learned this if they tried to recently purchase the carpet.
Due to this unavailability, we tested a new potential carpet at the Maine Summer Heat off-season event in June. (A huge “Thank you!” to the organizers of the event for allowing us to test the carpet there!) While the carpet held up well to the robot action, the gaffer’s tape that we use on the field did not stick.
Can’t use tape? How about paint?
So, we continued to work with our carpet vendor, who agreed to make our old carpet for us to use for the 2024 season.
While teams can still not purchase the official field carpet, teams have two options if they need carpet for a practice field:
- The first is to work with your Program Delivery Partner to get used carpet after events.
- The second option is to look at this carpet as the vendor’s recommended alternative. (Note that this carpet comes in 12 ft rolls, not the 15 ft rolls used at events, and is the same carpet tested at the offseason event, meaning tape will not stick well to the carpet.)
We continue to evaluate the future of carpet used at events, with the goal to find a commercially available product that can also be purchased by teams.
Comments
Hard tiles
Have you considered hard tiles? There are several vendors that specialize in hard tiles for PE and gym usage that might actually make a very compelling alternative to carpet as they are replaceable in small sections. I suspect the up-front investment will be high but the long term investment will be much less and maybe even reduce waste for FRC as a whole. Happy to chat - you folks know where to find me.
floor tiles
We haven't looked at those yet, but certainly can as part of our search for a longer-term solution. Thank you for the suggestion!
-Collin
Carpet - drive wheels
Perhaps a perspective shift to using different wheels on the bots is appropriate. Rubber-coated wheels might allow the use of a hard surface. There may be a light-weight but thick tile product available that would solve the problem of the carpet being torn up by the bots using hard high-traction wheels combined with SWERVE or other powerful drive systems. We are adding SWERVE to our bot this season (we don't have it yet) and when we participated in an outreach event with another team, they already had SWERVE and tore up our carpet. I think for long-term, carpet may not be the best solution.
Which carpet had the trouble with gaffers tape?
Was it the PROFUSION 20 PLETHORA that had issues with gaffers tape not sticking to it?
Yes, that is correct.
Yes, that is correct.
Carpet Set Up
Does the official field have a pad under the carpet? Or is there anything we should know before setting up a permanent field prior to laying the carpet?
Hi Robert -
Hi Robert -
There is no pad under the playing field carpet. The surface under the carpet is not specified and varies by event. It is often a hard surface. We recommend asking your Program Delivery Partner about the specifics of your events.
Thank you,
Collin
Any Update?
Hi,
As we head into the 2024 off-season, has FIRST gained any traction with sourcing carpet that meets the rigors of competition and retains field marking gaffers' tape? Logistically we obtained the aforementioned carpet and not being able to consistently hold tape. Thank you for any updates!
Updates
Also looking for an update on sourcing a new carpet for 2025. Thanks
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