Team 100 Progress...

[DampRobot]

Team 100's been having a wild season this year! Our awesome media team has been working hard to document our build process. In lieu of a more formal teaser, take a look at some of then videos they've put together, both linked below and on our YouTube channel.

Week 4 Progress Slideshow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkMn1fJ6_es

Feel free to ask questions about our build, etc. We're very excited about our progress this year, and were looking forward to competing at Davis and SVR. Hopefully, we'll be able to release a more formal reveal video either through FRC Top 25 or on CD in the coming weeks.

[Andrew Lawrence]

So are you only going for the middle goal?

[Pendulum^-1]

Very impressive rig.

However....is it executing a valid climb in the video? I ask this because I suspect that it is not. First, the climber is shown touching Level 0 (the ground), Level 1, and Level 2, simultaneously. Later, at about the 15 second point, it is shown touching Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 simultaneously.

I say valid, not illegal, because these actions would simply invalidate a climb (resulting in zero climb points), and not result in penalty points. I suspect your dumping the 20 points into to the top goal would still be valid.

I strongly suggest that you review Rule 3.1.5.2, CLIMB Points, especially the "B" sentence.

"A ROBOT has CLIMBED its PYRAMID if it contacts the PYRAMID and/or the floor (Level 0) in

A.sequential order (Level 0, 1, 2, 3) during ascent and
B.no more than two (2) Levels simultaneously.

If a CLIMB is considered unacceptable (e.g. a ROBOT has touched non-adjacent Levels or more than two (2) Levels at a time), a Referee will indicate a rejected CLIMB by turning the offending ROBOT’S PLAYER STATION LED strings yellow. The ROBOT will be ineligible for CLIMB points unless and until it begins a new CLIMB from the floor, Level 0. "

Sorry if I am raining on your parade. Hopefully, others here can either confirm or contradict my observation.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Very impressive rig.

However....is it executing a valid climb in the video? I ask this because I suspect that it is not. First, the climber is shown touching Level 0 (the ground), Level 1, and Level 2, simultaneously. Later, at about the 15 second point, it is shown touching Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 simultaneously.

I say valid, not illegal, because these actions would simply invalidate a climb (resulting in zero climb points), and not result in penalty points. I suspect your dumping the 20 points into to the top goal would still be valid.

I strongly suggest that you review Rule 3.1.5.2, CLIMB Points, especially the "B" sentence.

"A ROBOT has CLIMBED its PYRAMID if it contacts the PYRAMID and/or the floor (Level 0) in

A.sequential order (Level 0, 1, 2, 3) during ascent and
B.no more than two (2) Levels simultaneously.

If a CLIMB is considered unacceptable (e.g. a ROBOT has touched non-adjacent Levels or more than two (2) Levels at a time), a Referee will indicate a rejected CLIMB by turning the offending ROBOT’S PLAYER STATION LED strings yellow. The ROBOT will be ineligible for CLIMB points unless and until it begins a new CLIMB from the floor, Level 0. "

Sorry if I am raining on your parade. Hopefully, others here can either confirm or contradict my observation.

Verrrrrry rickety prototype.

We might be testing the real one today.

Short answer: no. You have to look very closely, the robot occupies three zones at many points in the climb, but it never touches more than two. At 15 it is not touching level three, this is probably just perspective because the top of the elevator is actually 8" away from the pole, in no danger of invalidating.

[Pendulum^-1]

Hmmm....ok. I can see how that can be the case.

I recommend that you do what you can to educate the referees with respect to your robot's expected climbing sequence, and how it may seem to be touching three zones, but is indeed only touching two. Close up inspection during Thursday climbs may help in this regard.

We also are designing a corner climber, and we modified our climbing sequence a bit to minimize the risk that we did not get an invalid climb either through our own error or through a mis-perception from a referee.

Best of luck.

[DampRobot]

So are you only going for the middle goal?

What leads you to ask that? We can shoot in the two, three, and five point goals.

Pendulum, we considered that long and hard. The bottom line is that because we only touch two levels at once, we have a vaild climb. Perhaps the video was a bit ambiguous in that regard. The top hooks do go into the third zone while our botom hooks are on the first, but the top hooks do not touch anything in that zone. Thank you for the advice about educating the refs, I didn't realise that they might not see things the way we do.