Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I saw the thread for best pure cycler, and I was wondering, who was the best at each aspect of the game? Here are the aspects I thought of (I will leave cycler to that thread):

FCS
Climber
Defense
Floor Pickup
Shooter-Climber
All Around

I would like to see everyone's opinion on these, and if possible, post links to videos for each robot.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I would like to give 2485's FCS some credit.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Pure climber? Not many well-done pure climbers. And the ones there are usually didn't make it to champs

In my opinion, top few robots in a few categories in order (As a robot's primary function):
FCS: 148, 2169, 67, 195, 225, 2468, 2485, 1806,
Climber(Pure climber): 2170, 4451, uhhhhh....
Defense: 4814, 2789, 968
Floor Pickup: 1538, 2056, 33, 2415, 3539, 2054, 3476, 624
Shooter-Climber: 1114, 254, 3467, 1334, 1640, 1986(they should have climbed more)
All-Around: 469, 987, 118, 254, 1986, 1717, 1983

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS: 2169
Climber: No pure climbers really come to mind besides Robotz garage
Defense: Texplosion(can't remember team #) Though lots of teams played defense well, they were talked about the most....
Floor pick-up: 2056 & 33/1538
Shooter-climber: 1114 or 254 edge to 1114 for their colored disc dump

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

The top 5 (IMO) not in any order are:

FCS: 148, 2169, 67, 469, 1806
Climber: 1421, 4451, 1810, 1023, 340(All climb and dumps)
Defense: 3284, 2789, 4814, 3847, 3885(A bit biased on this one ;) )
Floor Pick Up: 2056, 118, 1477, 33, 1538
Shooter/Climber: 1114, 254, 1986, 1334, 3467
All-Around: 469, 987, 254, 1114, 1986

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

869 was an outstanding defender from MAR. They had a fanbot with a sleeve and a great drivetrain/drivers that could virtually shut down top scorers. I even saw them defend three robots all at once.

225 was also one of the best pure FCS that I saw.

And of course 2590 was up there in terms for floor pickups.

Finally, 1640 was a top contender for all around once they got their climb working.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Just because they didn't make it to champs doesn't mean that they weren't any good!

We had a good year, and ended up one spot out of qualifying for St. Louis. You can see video of our climb on the Detroit Public Television website at:

http://www.dptv.org/programs/robotics/

If you click on the quarter finals video and go to 56:15 you can see our 30 point climb followed by 1918's 30 point climb.

We definitely weren't fast but we were really consistent. When we went for the top level, we made it 90% of the time and only took one fall in over 50 matches. Even though most brushed it off by week 6, it still turned out to be a game changer at the MSC when a climber could put up 74 points in a match.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Here's my opinions:
FCS-195
Climber-3467 (they shoot 4 cycles too, but their climber is amazing)
Defense-2789
Floor Pickup-2056
Shooter-Climber-1114
All Around-469

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I didn't see anything outside of Michigan, and I may be a bit biased, but this was my thoughts (This is MI only):
FCS (only): 2137
Pure Climber: 4294
Defense: 3547 or 3175 (I'm biased, I know.)
Floor Pickup: 33
Shooter-Climber: 67
All Around: 469

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS (only): 2169
Pure Climber: 4451
Defense: 2789
Floor Pickup: 2056
Shooter-Climber: 67
All Around: 469

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

My personal opinons, in no particular order:

FCS: 2169
Pure Climber: 1421 about 20 second climb and dump, could also get 8 discs into the 1 point goal in a match, made it to CMP
Defense: 233 and 2789 (233 may seem like an odd pick but they had a great driver and when they needed to could play outstanding defense)
Floor Pickup: 2056, 1477, 118, 1538
Shooter-Climber: 1114, 1986, 254,
All Around: 254, 469, 1114, 987

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I'd put 1477 in the All Around category after watching Einstein. They ran cycles, swept the floor, played defense, and finally found a use for their elevator by blocking 469's FCS. Plus, they can full court shoot (like the rest of their Championship alliance), but as Mr. Lim put it, they could beat that by cycling.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Yeah, I was gonna put 1477 in the all around category...but they could shoot full court?

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

[maaaad Canadian Bias.]

Cycler: 610
FCS: 1310
Climber: 1334
Defense: 4814
Floor Pickup: 2056
Shooter-Climber: 1114
All Around: 1114

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I'll throw 3309 into the "Pure Climber". They did have a shooter, but they mainly used it in automode--maybe one or two cycles afterwards. Then they'd go to the player station, grab 3-4 colored discs, and head for the corner of the pyramid. If they were left undefended they'd be at the top by the end, and the discs would be in the goal.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS - 148, 2169
Pure Climber - 1421, 4451
Defense - 3284 and 2337 are both very good since they have built in 84" blockers and strong drive trains
Floor Pickup - 469, 987, 1538, 2056, 118, 1477, 624, 33, 3539, etc.
Shooter-Climber - 1114, 67

All Around - 1114 when they're at their best, just because of how unique they are. It's been shown that three cyclers w/ a 7 disc auto can put up huge scores; i.e. The World Champs. Had one of them been able to convert their last cycle to 28 extra points it would have made their scores even harder to beat.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

To be fair, 1477 had a good 7-disc auto. It rarely made all 7, but it was good no less. They also swept the floor for their alliance sometimes.
Now, yeah, if you replaced any of the three world champs with 1114, they would have been better, but if 1114 had worked at their best during their divisional eliminations, they might have been where the eventual world champs are.
I hesitate to put 1114 on top for that reason.
I put 469 on top because they do everything amazing except climbing, they have any auto you could ask for, and they're just amazing overall.
Now imagine if the rumors are true and they're actually adding a climber for IRI. Scary.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

what about 558 for defense, strong drive train and a high blocker

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS: 1519, 148, 67, 2169, and 195 all deserve nods here. They all peaked at different times and have various advantages and disadvantages. The common factor in all of them - they used FCS as their primary strategy, their CG was low enough to avoid tipping (at least in their final iterations), and they were more accurate than many cyclers.

Climber: 3467, 254, and 1114 were the only three climbers consistent and fast enough to be in contention for this title. Many good climbers and climber dumpers this year, but these three were the best. Special nod to 2170, probably the best / fastest climber dumper I have seen this year, and one of the only ones that did the maneuver quickly enough that they could afford to actually play some defense.

Defense: 862, 4814, and 2168 all stand out as robots with specific defensive functions built into their robot that allow them to effectively defend in a variety of scenarios. All three of them were very well driven.

Floor Pickup: Ruling out any team without a 7-disc autonomous (sorry 20). 469 cycled more than they swept the floor, but that pickup was amazing. 33, 254, 341, 1538, 1310, 2056, and many others all had great floor pickups. There is a lot of parity in terms of quality of pickup mechanisms this year.

Shooter-Climber: See "Climber". The only change is the omission of 2170.

All Around: In my opinion, the best overall robot of 2013 was 469. (Is this what this category was supposed to mean? Because not one robot in FRC executed every game task this year)

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Canadian bias or not, this is a great list. Your defense on Curie was the most exciting and unexpected highlight of champs for me.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

What I love about this post is it's pretty much dead accurate, even with the Canadian bias.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

What you sayin bout the rest of us fool! :p

For all around my vote goes to 469. We faced them in 3 matches on Archimedes and they are just flat out amazing. Its impossible to predict what they will do aside from score the living daylights out of you. One second they are cycling extremely fast and then blasting away with their deadly accurate FCS and seconds later will be sweeping the floor on the other side of the field. You go to block them and they change their strategy quickly and efficiently.

Amazingly consistent and probably have the largest "bag of tricks" to perform in a match.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

469 was literally incredible, especially seeing them on Einstein buuuuuut there might some controversy here.

We will find out at IRI!!! :D

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

1114 pities the fool.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I first read "Scare the living daylights". I'm firmly convinced that's an appropriate translation as well.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I don't see where there is controversy. While 1114 is amazing this year as always, they aren't my personal #1 from the season. FRCTop25 also isn't the final metric of robot performance and who is the best. I personally see it as a "who is the most popular at the moment" list and due to participants ranking teams in voting based on differing reasons the list will never truly represent who THE best robot of the year is. Even its creators have said its just a fun show and shouldn't be taken seriously because "outside the top 25" are always a slew of amazing robots that can be considered the best for various reasons. 469 also came much closer to the world championship.

At the end of the day they are both amazing robots but each in their own separate ways.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I think the "controversy" in the rankings was due to 469 not usually releasing any type of robot showcase video. This puts them under radar of teams such as 118, 254, and 987. I also think not pairing with 67 this year hurt 469 as they were not able to put up a 220 type score together. As elite as 469 is, it's always weird that people will sometimes not put them in the top 5 competitive robot teams overall.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Remember that those rankings are not only Pre-Championship, but Pre-MSC. They directly beat two of the teams ahead of them at the championship, and finished better then everyone else.

They scored 219 at MSC, and had 4 scores over 220 at the championship, including 266.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

They used it just as a test to show that they could at CMP after they switched their shooter design around a bit.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Best all-around robot that stood above the rest: 469.
**Must be because Dan's family is from Hawaii.;) Hawaii people can easily identify other Hawaii transplants in the mainland, including offsprings. Seriously...

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Just going to throw this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMVS_iY5s5o
BTW, they loose this match, but I think they put up 142 pts on their own.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

This match by 1310 shows you how dominating they could be. Single handedly scored 138 points (148 if their alliance partner didn't knock them off of the pyramid). Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyEC142wuOM

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

That match kind of shows it all, doesn't it? Is there even any debate after watching that video? The versatility is incredible.

The specific count doesn't matter, as the scoring is incredible. I counted 6 auto discs, 34 teleop discs (with some each of FCS, floor-pickup, and human load cycles), and a 10-point hang. Total score for just the one robot = 36 + 102 + 10 = 148

Just to help put that into perspective, we qualified for championships by winning the North Carolina Regional. The highest score of the entire NCR tournament, put up by any alliance, was 138 points. The one-robot 140+ performance shown in the video above would have won every single match of the tournament, singlehandedly!

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Even more amazing was how consistently they could put up those insane numbers. Watch einstein and count. I know they put up more than 30 discs in one match, but I stopped counting during the other because my jaw was on the floor.

At MSC, they got the 'perfect' auton against us (90 points). Ever get that 'oh crap' feeling during a match? Yeah......

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

And the winners are:

Winner followed by runners up
FCS- 148, 67, 2169, 469
Climber- 3606, 3164, 3467, 1421
Defense- 2789, 4814, 3284, 233
Floor pickup- 3476, 1477, 469, 624
Shooter climber- 254, 1114, 67, 1986
Autonumous- 118, 3476, 1310, 1477

All around top 10(in order)
118, 254, 67, 1114, 469, 3476, 1477, 33, 148, 2056

Honorable mention: 217, 1310, 1986, 1758, 987, 2169, 3847, 1241, 624, 610

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS-148
Climber-254
Defense-3284
Floor Pickup-2056
Shooter-Climber-67
All Around-469

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS: 148- for me, the best tall full-court shooter beacuse of their ability to run a cycle as fast as many short full court shooers. Runner up- 2169, a well deserved division finalist.
Pure Climber: I haven't got a chance to watch top only-climb robots, exept for 1421- a great climber with a realy cool mecahnism.
Defence: 2337 & 4814 got a first place in my opinion, most of it because those inside-the-opponent's-pyramid blocks.
Floor Pickup: 469 for sure. Runners up- 118, 2056, 987.
Shooter-Climber: 1114 with a great cycler robot that can win a match just by cycling, but they have a 50 additional points for the climb.
All Around- 469 & 1114 are the best robots this year. can't wait for IRI. By the way, it was realy great to be at 1114's pit- their machine is even more great from a close range, and they showed the climbing gearbox and arm- always with a smile and patient. Definitely a team to learn from.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

That has to be the best single-robot effort I've seen this year.

1310's Curie Q72 performance has to be a very close 2nd though:

http://youtu.be/YyEC142wuOM

7 disc auto

32(?) in tele-op using a combination of FCS and ground-pickup

They didn't get their 10pt though, as they got caught under a partner when they pulled-up...

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Climber-254
FCS-67 runner up 148
All around 469
Defense 4814
Floor pick up 469

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Honestly, I think if you relagated 469 to a pure Floor Pickup role, there would be better robots out there for it. 1538 comes to mind as the best pure floor pickup in the world.
However they are better than most at it!
I think 1538, 33, and then a toss-up beyond that point for next best floor pickups.
As far as FCS's, I think Undefended, 67 is the best FCS in the world. Defended, I think 148 is. 2169 comes in a close 2nd in both scenarios (they basically scored ALL the points their championships alliance scored all the way to the finals by full court shooting. Seriously. Watch their Galileo matches. Freakin' incredible robot.)
And I think shooter-climber is undeniably 1114 with 67 in a close second (but maybe 1334 or 3467- they were pretty freakin' good themselves.)
The All-Around Best robot this year I think has to be 469 (with 987 and 1310 in a close second and third.)

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Winner followed by runners up
FCS- 148, 67, 2169
Defense- 2789, 3284, 4814
Floor pickup- 469, 2415, 2056, 1477, 1538,
Shooter climber- 1334, 254, 1114, 67
Autonumous- 118, 2415, 1310, 1477

All around top 10(in order)
469, 987, 254, 1310, 254, 118, 1114, 1310, 2056, 148


Honorable mention: 1477, 1986, 2415, 67, 1334, 2169, 3476, 1241, 610

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Somebody like the Poofs a little too much ;)

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

And 1310 :rolleyes:

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Haha Good catch. I guess I must like them a little too much as well then, not noticing the others :)

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Well who could resist that climb ;) . And 1310 was the first team to ever pick a team from Knoxville at championships!!!!! (Good job 3824!)

But really I copied and pasted someone else's format and accidentally left the rough draft on there instead of the final copy. Here is the final top 10:

469, 987, 1310, 254, 118, 1114, 2056, 148, 2415, 829*


*(inside joke on our team, the digital goats are our favorites)

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

There should be a category added, best rookie robot. My pick would be 4814. Their defense was crazy good all year(at GTRW and Curie). We lost 3 big matches against you guys.

Here are my other pick:

FCS-469 and 148
Climber-2994(didn't work all the time but at GTRE it was so much fun to watch)
Defense-4814
Floor Pickup-2056 and 3539
Climber Shooter-1114 also 1334 and 67
Autonomous-1310(just a bit biased :p)
All Around- 118, 469, 610, 1114, etc

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Sorry to bump a thread, but ...

After MidKnight Mayhem, I'd like to put a few cents in for 869 as a defensive robot. I'm not sure what off-seasons they'll be competing in for the fall, but if you don't know them, they're a fan on wheels. With a windsock.

Their MidKnight Mayhem matches can be found on Youtube (as well as their district matches, I'm sure), but they're some pretty scary defense to be across the field from.

They took a pretty unique approach to defense in Ultimate Ascent, and while it's led to some jokes and banter between our teams (the waaaacky waving inflatable arm tube man!), I will fully admit that I was nervous every time we were against them. They're agile, refuse to be pushed over, and their drivers are totally unafraid to go up against whatever team is their alliance's biggest threat. Oh - and they do it all without pulling penalties. Even the webcast doesn't really do justice to the intensity this team brings.

I'm a big fan of 869.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Lol, nice pun.

I'm also in the same boat. I had a chance to look at 869's robot at Monty, and I have to say I'm really impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of their design. I have to admit, the power drivetrain, and the fan were an idea that was kicked around in the design stage, but we decided not to go that way. I'm glad to see it implemented this well.

I'd also like to throw in a nomination: one of this finest cyclers in the MAR area that used Mechanums: 3974. Seriously awesome robot, and a cool team. Hope to see them at some offseasons!

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

FCS: 67 is good but they can be blocked. 1243 proved themselves at MARC and they definitely caught my eye. Plus they're very tall so it's hard to block them.

Climber: 4819 was the best at Kettering. I liked how 67 climbed but it wasn't always effective. 1023 was good at climbing at MARC. I can't remember the team number, but a team on Newton had a 50 point climb that looked good. They had a lot of LED's, if anyone can remember.

Defense: The only team that comes to mind is 4384.

Floor Pickup: Hands-down 33, 469, and 2054.

Shooter-Climber: 33, 245, 254, 1114.

For all-around I'd have to say 1718. They aren't really spoken about a lot, but their cycling power definitely sticks in my mind.

I have a regional bias.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Team 88 TJ^2 seems to fit that description well.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

That's who I was thinking too, but I wasn't entirely sure. The team name didn't sound familiar.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

[Disclaimer] Extreme Regional Bias [/Disclaimer]

Yea, that's probably it. I'm kind of surprised because 88 had major consistency issues at their 2 regionals (I didn't see them play at champs). I believe the problem was they couldn't get lined up. They do get my vote for the most robust robot of the year. Fall down from the top of the tower and a few zip ties later they are ready to go again.

My vote for the best pure climber goes to 190. They do shoot in autonomous, but I still count them as a pure climber. I was shocked when I found out the team who couldn't get up past the 20 point level (and didn't have their shooter yet) at WPI was on the #8 alliance at champs.

Most awesome climb goes to 2084. I remember someone on their team told me that they had over 700 foot-pounds of torque. :eek:

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

I agree with this! I hear 190 did well at GTRW, but I didn't expect them to get picked at champs in all honesty. I should have known better I suppose, 190's a #solid team.

Re: Best Robot for Each Category?
 

Maybe I didn't get enough exposure to other teams this year, but the best team I seen (in person at least) was 2052, KnightKrawler. They had a great driver, fast robot, quick 10 point climb (Climb Demonstration), deadly Full Court shooting if left uncheck (FCS Demonstration), and not to mention they could complete 7 cycles in a match.