FIRST 101 [11/25/05]

[Andy Grady]

Hello class, time for another action packed lesson in FIRST 101...

Releasing Objects

One of the more interesting facets of the pre 1998 era was the ability to leave objects behind on the field behind you. It allowed for some very interesting defensive design features before the invent of the "Cap"

cap: n, 1. object used to hold a bunch of scoring objects on the goal while your robot runs amuck over the rest of the field. 2. see Beatty and Hammond

Back in 1993 during Rug Rage, the goals were small crossbars very close to the ground. One team figured it would be an inteligent move to release a long wall to block teams from scoring underneath the bar. A stroke of pure genious! There was also the appearance of a landmine type obstruction left by Plymouth North High School in 1996. We don't stop there though! Also during Hexagon Havoc, a couple of very inteligent teams thought it would be a smart idea to put all the small balls they collected on the field into a bag or container and drop the whole bag inside of the goal. Those two teams? The Rhode Warriors(current team 121) and Wildstang (current team 111). The Rhode Warrior robot's cage actually also had the ability to block the goal from the inside!

Maybe in the future we'll see the return of releasable items and as a result see the invent of these awsome defensive features.

Class dismissed.

-Professor Grady

[Dave Flowerday]

Also during Hexagon Havoc, a couple of very inteligent teams thought it would be a smart idea to put all the small balls they collected on the field into a bag or container and drop the whole bag inside of the goal. Those two teams? The Rhode Warriors(current team 121) and Wildstang (current team 111).
Holland (current team 74) did that as well.

Along the same lines, remember the Christmas-tree toppers from 1997? These were devices that would attach to the top of the Christmas-tree shaped goal to prevent other teams from obtaining the very valuable power of 2 multiplier up there...

[AmyPrib]

Yeah, in '93 there were a lot of robots that scooped up the little balls into a cage on top of their bot, drove into the bar where the goal was so that the top of their robot (where the balls were stored) would latch on to the bar, or fall off the bot, and slump into their goal. I know 45 did that along with many other teams. When I first saw that I thought "what the heck" becuase they just rammed straight into the bar... When I saw the top fall off, I thought.. huh.. cool.
The goals were... just a flat area where you could roll balls into (nothing to keep them from rolling back out), but an opponent could drive under the bar and pull them all out. But, teams got smart and would trap the opponent in their goal so they couldn't descore.

The Beatty bot (I believe) in Torroid Terror '97 was pretty cool, with the detachable device that allowed them to stack around 3-4 torroids on top of the goal... whereas without, you could get 1 on the top.

I also seem to remember seeing - some of the games you didn't need to really have the objects in the goal.. so long as they were above, or "within" the 3-d space above the goal, they counted. (the case with hex havoc?)

It's really interesting watching old matches/old games and seeing the creativity in how they interpreted rules, what they could/couldn't do, etc.
Neat to see the evolution of games, and pretty cool to see some of the ~ '87 MIT competitions that Woodie had in class.

[Andy Grady]

I also seem to remember seeing - some of the games you didn't need to really have the objects in the goal.. so long as they were above, or "within" the 3-d space above the goal, they counted. (the case with hex havoc?)



Job well done Amy! This was the "Infanite Scoring Plane". In Hexagon Havoc in theory you could tip over the goal, drive in front of the opening of it with a robot full of balls, and get allll the points that the scoring plane passed through. In fact there was one team who had a strategy based around this. DWC and Alvirne HS (Current team 42) would drive up to the goal, use a little flap to wedge under the goal and tip it over, and then would drive right in front of the opening. Great strategy, but the drive system they had wasn't reliable enough to make them effective that year. Also the infinate scoring plane was present in Torroid Terror as the center of the tubes had to have an invisible line passing through it which was lined up with the apex of the goal. This is what made the picture of three robots capping a goal at once so amazing...all those points counted and it was close to 15 feet high at that point!

Also..question for Dave Flowerday...do you know if Holland was known as the "Arch Rivals" back then? They had a large container for balls that could block the goal also. Amazing robot!

-Professor Grady

[Dave Flowerday]

Also..question for Dave Flowerday...do you know if Holland was known as the "Arch Rivals" back then? They had a large container for balls that could block the goal also. Amazing robot!
Nope, we were just Holland at the time (I was on that team back then). Our container was a shiny aluminum box that could hold 9 balls at a time. It wasn't designed to block the goal however.