TRIPLE BALANCE
 

The Robowranglwers alliance made the first triple Balance ever this season.
Teams included 148 922 and 2936.

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it was awesome! im so glad i saw that

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I was SUPRISED I thought they were gonna be eliminated.

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I was worried there, and then it just kinda happened. I couldn't believe it, and it was really great to see! I too thought they would be knocked out!

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A beautiful thing!

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The mc mentioned a "secret weapon" before the match.

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Boy am I happy that my team has a wide robot!

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If you look closely 148 is hanging one set of wheels off. need at least 1 widebot (or longbot) that can hang off enough to give you balance room.

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We designed for that, our center of gravity is towards the back of our robot. We can hang our front wheels off ;)

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From what I saw, it looked like 922 is a narrow robot with mecanums, which allowed 148 to push them up sideways.

Here's another shot courtesy of B. Nain Photography.

EDIT: And they just pulled it off again to beat the 488/118 alliance 63-39!

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It happened again!!!!

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After watching the second balance, their balancing mechanism is doing the load of the work. That's some great engineering, simply being wide isn't enough.

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These matches are awesome. Robowranglers are winning because of triple Balance.

GOO Robo Wranglers

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Remember the Alamo (regional)!

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488 just proved the triple balance defendable :)

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:( I wanted to see another triple balance.
The 2 red teams got the ont robot away from the bridge and they didnt get enough time for a triple balance.

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that was awesome!!! good job guys:D

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WOW AMAZING !!!:yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

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SF 1.3 in Alamo! HOLY CRAP way to go blue alliance!!!!!!
P.S. i was actually holding my breath for fear that Gatorzillas would fall!!

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How did that happen? Amazing

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that last one was sketchy... 2936 almost fell off :yikes:

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First 3 bot balance with a long robot!! I don't know how 2936 stayed on the bridge.

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Anybody got a photo of that last one?

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They stayed the whole time. :) Loved that match.

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anyone check out the Smoky Mountains Regional? Almost had it in the elimination rounds

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they got 40 points again :O

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It wasn't a true triple balance though. Blue hit them while they were trying to balance, so they automatically got the balance for 40 points, and 9 points from the technical foul.

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Exactly what does 148 do to aid in triple balance?

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They have a piston that supports the part hanging off till the bridge stops rocking

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2468 showed them that trick before that got eliminated and 488 gave it a shot.

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Wow, great job everyone going for the coveted triple balance!

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wow! I was attending Granite State Regional and they showed the picture. I was awestruck when i saw it. the only bad thing....... no coopertition points!

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It was in eliminations.

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Well, it almost happened at Kettering in Michigan today!! 1322, 2137 and 302. We had it balanced for a second or 2 but alas it wasn't meant to be! Thank you 2137 and 302 for being great partners and from what we were told, if we had last a few seconds longer we would have been 1st to do it! Great pic and congrats to the teams who accomplished that great feat!

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At the Kettering Competition in Michigan today, during the quarterfinals (against teams 2337, 4294, and 33) teams 1322, 2137, and 302 almost managed to get the triple balance. Here's two stills from the video that was taken of our attempt, and the aftermath.
Attachment 12186

Attachment 12187
So close~

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We had it for about 1-2 seconds then somebody slipped and we lost it. It was great to see it get even that close. Good job 1322 and 302! Not half bad for an 8 seed alliance.

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At GSR a double balance was rare enough that I do not think that anyone tried a triple.

Is there any video?

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Here's a video of our match with the attempted triple balance. And I know that our team at least had no problems at all with getting two robots on the bridge - balanced pretty much every single time. Same went for a few other FIRST teams at the Kettering competition.

Video of match.

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Here is the only video I could find of a 148-alliance triple balance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYcqFdbgc4

Was 148 really going for the 2-point hoop the whole time?

It also looks like their pneumatic tires make turning difficult.

If anyone else had links to video of the Alamo finals we would all love to see them.

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Just happened at San Diego! 599's Alliance!

EDIT: only counted as 20 points...:(

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I saw that aswel.

Why did that only count as 20 points?

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Why?

looked legal to me.

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From the webcast, 1661 appeared to be supported on the field side rail. I'm not sure why they were given 20 points though...

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I forget which number, but the team on the right side(when watching the webcast) was supported by something (I believe the field barrier). But the confusion comes in in how it was counted as 20 points...

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They fixed it... bye bye 20 points...

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Now a legal 3-bot balance at San Diego!

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Triple balance by 599,2599, and 1661. Clean balance this time Congratulations!

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AFAIK that balance was un-assisted too (no magic jacks)... Congrats!

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Happened again. They are moving on to the semi's however they only scored one basket that last match and none the match before. If they don't start scoring baskets i don't think the triple balance will be enough to win in the finals.

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Photo of the 3-robot balance in San Diego

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This is how the 599/1661/2599 pulled off the triple balance in San Diego. 1661 got pushed up sideways because of their mecanums. It took all match though and they didnt score any balls. With the right strategy its easy to beat

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Our GSR finalist alliance of 1519, 885, 2791 explored the triple balance with our robots on the practice field before elimination rounds. We had hoped that it would be possible with our 3 wide-format robots, but we were not able to find a configuration in which it would work. Even though we could hang a significant fraction of our robot off of the bridge due to our 8-wheel drive, both the 885 and 2791 robots had a sufficiently high CG that when either end of their 4wd robots was hung off of the bridge, the robot would topple over.

We ended up going with two-robot bridge balancing instead -- we had really hoped that we'd be able to do the 3-robot balancing act, but didn't have quite the right robots to be able to succeed at it.

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A bit of clarification... Here's how we did it:

599 crossed the barrier and lifted the bridge for 2599 & 1661 to drive up from the far side. (2599 had a mecanum drive and could not climb the bridge without help, so 1661 pushed them up.) 599 backed off and the bridge came down on their side as the other two teams continued over the bridge.

Next, both 2599 and 1661 turned 90 degrees on the bridge. This was a major challenge and really shows the talent and teamwork of these drive teams!

The final maneuver was 599 pushing the other two robots up the bridge (with 2599 adding everything they could with their mecanums) for a final balance. 599 hangs nearly half of its length off the edge of the bridge.

The first time, 1661 ended up with their bumper on the field rail, so it didn't count. The second time, they didn't manage to turn 90 degrees, so they ended up hanging of the edge. The third time, 1661 managed the turn.

The teamwork from this alliance to manage this repeatedly was incredible. We got faster and faster each time. (~115 sec, ~100 sec, ~80 sec)

Things we learned:
1. It can be done!
2. Practicing it is crucial.
3. We are now fairly confident that we can balance three bots with a very wide range of alliance partners.
4. We can probably do it in 30 seconds or less, but that would take practice.
5. A three-bot balance is NOT a sure win. With so many good scoring teams, the 20 point bonus and 40 point total is probably only worth it if you can do it very quickly.
6. It is so easy for it to all go terribly wrong and completely fall apart!

We had a great event in San Diego! Thanks to the entire event staff!

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox