2012 FRC Team 1717 Uncut

[jakemochas]

Dear FIRST Community,

We would like to thank all of you for a great season of FIRST Robotics! As you may know, our team is made up of all seniors and we only get to do FIRST once. Thanks for making our experience so awesome! We had a fantastic time competing in the Long Beach and Central Valley Regionals and on the Newton field in St. Louis. From helping us in the pits to competing with gracious professionalism out on the field, everyone really made this season memorable!

Our 2012 robot is named Lindsay Rose in honor of our classmate who passed away during our freshman year. Lindsay would have been a senior in the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy (DPEA) and would have been a member of Team 1717 this year. Her competitive spirit and energetic personality were definitely missed during the late nights of build season. We really cannot express how much her sweet, adventurous, and caring personality impacted everyone around her.

A few weeks before kickoff, the DPEA and Team 1717 were able to move into a brand new facility. In the past, our program resided in a 900 square room. In the new facility, we were able to setup a full size Rebound Rumble practice field. After St. Louis, we decided to take some final videos of Lindsay Rose in action before we dismantled the field. We have included links to the videos (below) along with a brief description of each video. We hope you enjoy watching them.

Thanks again,

2012 FRC Team 1717, the D’Penguineers


Watch the entire playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL51FE6FC40790DD2B

Swerve Drive
This video demonstrates the fluid motion of our swerve drive as well as some of the neat features specifically added by our programming team to aid in playing Rebound Rumble. In order to play a game that has its roots from basketball, we thought it would be advantageous for our robot to spin and pivot like a basketball player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZHaTGiakZM

Swerve Slalom
This video demonstrates the more complex maneuvering capabilities of our swerve drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9WHMssEF4U

Bridge and Barrier Mechanisms
This video demonstrates our robot's ability to drive over the bridge, balance on the bridge, and cross the barrier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM80DE3dBZk

Single Ball Shoot-Around
This video demonstrates a drill that we used to help our drivers line up for shots more quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn4XNM5Q2pQ

Collecting and Shooting
This video demonstrates a drill that we used to help our drivers reduce the amount time it took them to collect and shoot three balls. We also ran variations of the drill, only collecting one or two balls at a time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZsz-EZLI4w

30 Second Endgame Strategy
This video demonstrates a potential way to defeat the triple balance. In the event that we ended up on an alliance without the triple balance capability, we wanted a back-up plan. Rather than have our human player feed us balls throughout the game, we would take and score our opposing alliance’s balls. This would allow our human player to accumulate 6 balls. Typically at 30 seconds, there were still a few balls on our side of the field, and with the human player's 6 balls in hand, thrown properly, we could put up a lot of points. The assumption was that if teams were going to triple balance, we would likely be undefended during the last 30 seconds. We would send our alliance partners to double balance for 20 and we would try to make up the difference. Enjoy the buzzer beater!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCzHHwj2qZo

Shooter Accuracy and Precision
This video demonstrates the accuracy and precision of our shooter. The robot could shoot with this consistency from anywhere in the key and at the fender. The balls used in this demonstration run the gamut and vary in firmness and age. Some are fresh out of the box while others are more than a month old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg_ssvGBqEs

Speeding up 6-Ball Autonomous for St. Louis
This video demonstrates the minimum time in which 6 balls could be shot by our robot during autonomous. On the night that this video was taken, our programmers successfully tripled our shooter’s rate of fire while maintaining the same accuracy. We needed to speed the process up to make it possible for other robots to feed their balls to us and guarantee that we could score all of them during the 15 second autonomous period.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7fbkfA8Pic

Highlight Reel
This video is shows our robot in action playing the 2012 FRC game, Rebound Rumble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDy4-b_hxo

[rsisk]

wow, I think I saw that 30 second end game a couple time in person ;>

[Ekcrbe]

Congrats on the amazing season. It was an honor to compete against you on Newton in St. Louis, and you probably deserved a finish better than Division Semifinalist with all the capabilities of the Lindsay Rose machine. Good luck in the future, and with your unique structure, Team 1717 seems poised to remain a force in FRC for years to come.

[Akash Rastogi]

All I can say about that slalom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1DzZ7oShl4

Your team simply amazes me.

Is there a site that discusses the curriculum your school has in place for the grade levels? I'd love to learn what the 9-11 students learn and what type of projects they work on as well as how it all transfers to the FRC team their senior year.

Congrats on a great season!

[bearbot]

Any idea if the CAD will be released to FRCdesigns or to the public it was a real game changing robot

[DevenStonow]

Originally Posted by bearbot

Any idea if the CAD will be released to FRCdesigns or to the public it was a real game changing robot

Oh, what I would give to see CAD of a 1717 bot

[LeelandS]

What a machine. Very inspiring, naming the robot after your classmate.

Lindsay Rose is, in my opinion, the best machine not on Einstein. Maybe I'm wrong to say that, with the likes of 469, 67, 341, etc. missing the Championship Stage, but I would say 1717 surpassed them all. They were mobile, with a swerve that has become renowned in the FIRST Community, accuracy with shooting that was unparalleled, and an ability to acquire balls at a rapid pace, making them a quintessential scoring machine.

1717's 2012 robot is absolutely amazing! I wish I could have seen it first hand. 1717 has been largely unknown in the past, save for those on the West Coast and some circles across the country. Now, I think 1717 is going to be on everyone's radar.

[Mk.32]

Wow.. that is epic...

Also on another note is it just me or is that like 30 milling machines on the right side of the field :O

[DevenStonow]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

All I can say about that slalom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1DzZ7oShl4

Your team simply amazes me.

Is there a site that discusses the curriculum your school has in place for the grade levels? I'd love to learn what the 9-11 students learn and what type of projects they work on as well as how it all transfers to the FRC team their senior year.

Congrats on a great season!

The closest to that would probably be The New Cool. It's a few years old now, but it does give a nice insight into what their design process was like, and that was the year they created their swerve.

[LedLover96]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

The closest to that would probably be The New Cool. It's a few years old now, but it does give a nice insight into what their design process was like, and that was the year they created their swerve.

I talked to 1717 at Championship this year and learned that they have designed a completely new swerve since 2009. This year they used independent swerve modules because of the motor allowance, unlike in past years.

This was a fantastic robot and I loved getting to see the robot in action in these videos. I would also like to agree that 1717 is the best robot not on Einstein, for the reasons that Leeland stated. I had brought a teammate to watch Championships with me (my team wasn't actually competing) and I would always point out whenever 1717 came out to compete on Newton. He was astounded at there speed and accuracy of scoring.

Great machine, great team.

[IKE]

Congrats on the 150 in a row. That is quite the accomplishment. I seriously doubt that much more than 10% of FRC have even cycled that many balls through their shooter.

[btslaser]

Amazing robot, one of my favorites. Couple of questions...

1) Does the shooter wheel run continuously at a nominal or the last speed?
2) Is it using camera tracking? Continuous?

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1DzZ7oShl4

That just about sums up my thoughts on Lindsay Rose. Absolutely amazing.
Your shooter consistency has got to be the top shooter in FIRST Robotics this year. The performance you put on was absolutely inspiring, and something all teams should strive for. And your swerve just, *puts on sunglasses*, drives circles around all other swerves.

I think one thing never mentioned enough is that the members on 1717, each year, are having their rookie year, yet every time make excellence a standard.

[Hjelstrom]

Awesome robot. I love the end-game strategy too!

[Gregor]

I have not seen a team that matches your shooting capability. Your ability to shoot from wherever you choose is unparalleled by anyone. And your speed and agility just adds to the awesomeness!