Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I know there are teams doing floor pick ups and feeder pick ups and some of both but will it be necessary to have a ground pick up?

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Absolutely not. However, seeing some of your shooter prototypes that you posted, if you really are shooting from the feeder station (depending on your accuracy) it might be beneficial for you or one of your alliance partners to have one. Then again, it could weigh your robot down making climbing harder.

But no, you can play the game without one.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I don't think you NEED to do anything. If you choose to spend the time you would have used making a floor pick-up in a constructive way (i.e. making a climber better and more solid or making a more consistent shooter) I think that is a completely viable option.

This game has tons of game pieces behind the alliance wall so no I don't think you need to pick up.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Pre-competition season the only reason I see the need for a pick up off the ground is for autonomous. Shoot three frisbees in the top goal, pick up two more and shoot those as well. You then have 30 points, equivalent to a top level hang.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

We are very accurate but many of us wanted the campibility to pick up in auto, that would be the only reason for it in our opinion.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Given the date of the build season I would say your team made their choice weeks ago and it didn't include floor pickup. I would recommend making what you have the best there is and don't worry about.

As a thought for the future, are there really any FRC games where you don't want to pick up from the floor?

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

We left space for it because we wanted to amke sure we had everything else finished first and now we are looking saying, we still have plenty of time. Does a sub group want to work on it further?

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Ground pickup will be a huge advantage in this game, as there's inevitably going to be missed shots laying about, and every four misses you pick up is one less trip to the feeder station.

That said, you can still play the game if you don't have ground pickup, you'll just be playing differently.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

During the first 15 seconds it could be very important................

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

There are two times it really matters. Autonomous and the end-game if you aren't going for a "long" hang. If you aren't confident in your multi-disc autonomous mode, the energy invested in floor loading might be better put into a hanger.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I think it's a fairly low priority. There are enough to load from the feeder station. That's not saying it's not a good thing, there are also enough to pick up that it would be beneficial (with a good shooter, that is). I think it comes down to a fairly simple question, will it score you more points that it might cost you on the pyramid. We decided it's not worth the time to design and build it.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Is your robot wired, programmed, shooting accurately and scoring in autonomous mode? If not, you're not actually done. If building a pickup mechanism won't interfere with these other tasks, then go ahead. But I'd recommend you finish those other things first before you tie up the robot adding a pickup mechanism.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I have never seen a shooter game where regional bots have amazing accuracy. In championship eliminations I think that a ground pickup may become less used, but in regionals at least I think that there will always be frisbees on the ground at a given moment.
Of course, everything depends on the joined capabilities of an alliance.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

My team initialy decided to go with loader station only, but then decided to make one for auton pickup. Our thought was that you can go to the feeder station and get 4 disks in the same time or faster as you can pick them up.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

When we made this decision earlier in the year, our minds were made up by past experience. In 2009, we could not pick up off the ground, and for this reason, we were dead last at our regional. We did not want to make this choice again, and pickup from the floor was near the top of our priority list.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

[quote=Flak-Bait;1228113] In 2009, we could not pick up off the ground, and for this reason, we were dead last at our regional.

2009 was a very different game, floor pickup was pretty much a requirement, because that's where the game pieces were. That is not the case this year.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

We just didn't want to take that chance. We discussed the amount of defense and how difficult it would be to make it to the feeder stations. The other factor, as mentioned before, was how many shots we thought would be missed by the opposing alliance. We were betting that there will be a lot of frisbees in close proximity to each other and/or at the end walls, and designed our intake accordingly.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Any team who cannot pick-up from the ground should plan for autonomous positions that do not interfere with those who do.

I predict the teams with a reliable ground pick-up and supporting autonomous code will vie for the #1 seed most regionals, but an alliance only needs one such robot. If the captain has the bonus autonomous covered then speedy, accurate slot loaders will fit right in.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I agree with this 100%, this is the type of thing that wins events. You only need one (maybe two) robots that can pick up during auton, and the remaining robots need to get out of the way. Our strategy looks like it will involve picking up 2-4 Frisbees and scoring a total of 5-6 for 30-36 points, but robots getting in the way could decrease that score.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I don't think it's absolutely necessary for every team. I do think that it'll play a part in the cookie-cutter alliances that we'll start to see in the later regionals. Last year the general play was one dedicated defense/feeder, one shooter to pick up from the opposing side of the field, and one dedicated home-side shooter.

This year I anticipate the "normal" alliance will consist of one robot to pick up the opponents discs to score, with the other two focusing primarily on running the route between their designated loading station and their preferred scoring position.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

We are picking up and delivering at a shooter near the top of the bot. Here is a link to a video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03Vgd1Tl2k

This video was made about 10 days ago, and since then there has been quite a bit of development. There are two sets of Banebot wheels with the axes oriented vertically which "sweep" the frisbees into the pickup belts. Can pick up against a wall or even in the corner.

Right now it is semi-reliable, but should be quite reliable before the GSR.

We hope to be able to pick up and shoot two frisbees during auto. We hope to be able to convert misses into points during telep.

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

Looks great! Can't wait to see it in person at GSR!

Re: Will you NEED to be able to pick up off the ground?
 

I'm not Carnack but sometimes I play one on TV.

Observation: Winning autonomous has real strategic value and floor pickup is a big part of that.
Prediction: Many teams will over-allocate resources to a floor pickup mechanism and not leave their programming teams enough time to program their robots to score in autonomous.

Bonus Prediction: In game floor pickup will be one of the easiest game actions to defend.