FRC Blogged - FIRST Choice: Progress

[Calvin Hartley]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 12-18-2013 15:37: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-FIRST-Choice-Progress

FIRST Choice: Progress

Blog Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - 15:37

A note from our Kit of Parts team, Kate & Collin:

We’ve had some calls expressing anxiety that we’ll issue the first round of credits in the midst of Christmas celebrations, so we’re going to take this opportunity to give you a general sense of where FIRST Choice is…

AndyMark has been restructuring the FIRST Choice site to one that can meet their standards, our standards, and your standards. That, to us, would be the hat trick. The new framework should be in place at the end of this week, which will be followed by rigorous testing. We expect this to take several more days, and have a buffer in case testing reveals any additional issues. That being said, we commit that we will not open FIRST Choice before 12/28.

[MrBasse]

Hat trick = Hockey game.

Three's keep coming back into play in every message though...

[BigJ]

I can't tell if they are purposely trolling us with all the random sports references now or not.

[Andrew Lawrence]

Blog was posted a minute too soon...

[DonRotolo]

Obviously a game hint: This year's game has something to do with sports. (makes the difference between precision and accuracy somewhat clearer, eh?)

[Jimmy Nichols]

Hat trick = Hockey game.

Three's keep coming back into play in every message though...

Guess I will go there, Hockey is played on Ice and ice is made of water.

Water game.

First and last time I ever go there, I promise.

[MrTechCenter]

Guess I will go there, Hockey is played on Ice and ice is made of water.

Water game.

First and last time I ever go there, I promise.

Return of regolith?

[buildmaster5000]

Return of regolith?
No. Please no. If there was something worse than the MiniBots, that was it.

[rwkling1]

Floor hockey maybe? So it's not a slippery surface, but still hockey

[Steven Donow]

Now let's talk about what the blog was actually trying to say.


I assume FIRST Choice will open the second or the third of January. It also looks like we'll see a total restructuring/reformatting of how FIRST Choice is done, which is kinda disappointing, but FIRST and AM know it needs to be done.

[Tom Line]

Now let's talk about what the blog was actually trying to say.


I assume FIRST Choice will open the second or the third of January. It also looks like we'll see a total restructuring/reformatting of how FIRST Choice is done, which is kinda disappointing, but FIRST and AM know it needs to be done.

I don't expect a change in the visible process of FIRST Choice. I expect they're working on correcting the underlying issues with the infrastructure.

/cue obligatory ACA website reference.

[MooreteP]

I call game hint.

Hockey is the emulation this season.
A goalie to block scoring, 2 v. 2 offense and defense.
Pucks (see 1999)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Trouble_(FIRST)

Although the pucks will be much smaller. They may be Roomba's!

Penalty boxes (too difficult) and power plays would be interesting.

Regolith may or may not happen. It wasn't such a bad thing and fit the theme of lower friction on the Moon. I hope not, but we have a bunch of leftover wheels from that game.

[Jon Stratis]

I like the idea of power plays... Instead of an auto period at the start, each robot could randomly be dropped into auto, with limited control ala Overdrive. 2:15 matches, each robot gets dropped in for a different 15 second auto period, with 5 seconds between each auto period and the last 5 seconds for end game.

I hope I'm not giving the GDC diabolical game ideas now!

[Andrew Lawrence]

I like the idea of power plays... Instead of an auto period at the start, each robot could randomly be dropped into auto, with limited control ala Overdrive. 2:15 matches, each robot gets dropped in for a different 15 second auto period, with 5 seconds between each auto period and the last 5 seconds for end game.

I hope I'm not giving the GDC diabolical game ideas now!

I think something of a similar nature would be very interesting to game strategy, where each robot on the alliance takes turns going through a 40 second 'power play' during teleop where their scoring is boosted a la autonomous mode the past two years. It would require fluid and dynamic match strategies to work with the teams focusing on letting the power play robot score, or focusing their defense on a specific robot on the opposing alliance.

[FrankJ]

Hat trick, three strikes. They are clearly saying there will be 3 robot on each alliance!!!

[BrendanB]

Back to the topic of this thread....

Thank you FIRST for keeping us in the loop and I am glad to hear the progress being made to produce a better system for everyone!

[Dr.Bot]

Who designed the FIRST Choice site? Was it the same outfit that designed Healthcare.gov? :deadhorse:

[sanddrag]

Who designed the FIRST Choice site? Was it the same outfit that designed Healthcare.gov? :deadhorse:Ouch?

[nicholsjj]

One thing that I wish FIRST Choice would do is to open the 3D printing lottery now so that those teams will not be waiting to get their printers after kickoff. I don't think it's fair that our team has one now and we are able to design and print parts currently to learn how to use the printer when there an award that is now available for it. I would suggest that FIRST and AndyMark allow the teams that wanted to participate in the lottery to have their main lead mentor send an email with a priority list of their printer choice to the FIRST Choice email. This way would also provide FIRST Choice with less traffic when they fully open up *hopefully on the 28 as well as give those teams a chance to "mess around" with the new technology.

I would also like to thank the hard work and straight forwardness that the FIRST KOP staff as well as the AndyMark staff has been with the FIRST Community involving FIRST Choice. I hope that you all know that the service that you are providing is VERY helpful for many teams. Again Thanks.

[Brandon_L]

Hat trick = Hockey game.
Return of regolith?
Floor hockey maybe? So it's not a slippery surface, but still hockey
I call game hint.

Really?

One thing that I wish FIRST Choice would do is to open the 3D printing lottery now so that those teams will not be waiting to get their printers after kickoff. I don't think it's fair that our team has one now and we are able to design and print parts currently to learn how to use the printer when there an award that is now available for it.

I don't really think theres anything anyone can do about it. Its not so much unfair, maybe an advantage, but the lottery costs credits and we're not getting credits until FC opens up.


I would also like to thank the hard work and straight forwardness that the FIRST KOP staff as well as the AndyMark staff has been with the FIRST Community involving FIRST Choice. I hope that you all know that the service that you are providing is VERY helpful for many teams. Again Thanks.

This really, REALLY, has not been said enough lately. I double this.

[Tom Line]

Not to long ago, there was group of mentors who spearheaded a transparency compaign for FIRST. Over the last couple years, I believe we've seen the fruits of some of that labor. That includes honest admissions when problems arise, and insightful reports like the einstein report where FIRST was not afraid to identify what they had done wrong and right.

This is exactly how they should continue to operate going forward. It's a phenomal improvement. It's also an example of a company that's stated undeniably "We are not afraid of being wrong." It's a lesson a whole lot of engineers could learn.

Thank you to that group of mentors for creating such a huge culture shift in FIRST, and thank you to Frank and the rest of the folks at FIRST for doing it right.

[Steven Donow]

Not to long ago, there was group of mentors who spearheaded a transparency compaign for FIRST. Over the last couple years, I believe we've seen the fruits of some of that labor. That includes honest admissions when problems arise, and insightful reports like the einstein report where FIRST was not afraid to identify what they had done wrong and right.

This is exactly how they should continue to operate going forward. It's a phenomal improvement. It's also an example of a company that's stated undeniably "We are not afraid of being wrong." It's a lesson a whole lot of engineers could learn.

Thank you to that group of mentors for creating such a huge culture shift in FIRST, and thank you to Frank and the rest of the folks at FIRST for doing it right.


This was actually what I thought of upon reading some of the comments in this thread. For those curious, here's a link to the original thread with the letter sent to FIRST (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78516&highlight=transparency)