Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Hey guys. I have a quick question and I'm curious if anyone knows the answer. I got bored so I started watching old game animations. I noticed something odd.

Does anyone know why the red alliance always consists of 116, 118, and 148 and why the blue alliance always consists of 233, 254, and 330 in all of the game animations from 2008-2014? Thanks.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

116 is Dave Lavery's Team (him being the animator and a NASA engineer), and the rest are well recognized and (with the exception of 148) NASA sponsored teams.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Thanks. And maybe 148 because they are one of the most faumos Original and sustained teams?

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Wait, what? Never noticed this.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Yes, those 6 teams have indeed been used for every year that team number displays were shown in the game animation. I'm guessing that most were chosen as high-profile NASA teams (Dave's choice for arbitrary teams that are well-known -- he probably just picked teams that popped up in his head at the time). 148, despite not being affiliated with NASA, was probably just a well-known team that fit into the 1xx number theme that Dave seemed to want for that alliance.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

The only question is... Which of these teams kept bringing dozer/plowie to the field?

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Seems like a 148 or 330 thing to do.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Has Dozer ever been an omnidirectional robot, or does it feel that "anything that moves sideways is a waste of time"?
:P

Also, Dozer usually sports a west coast drive.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Fixed that.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Well... Plowie is a blue robot so it's either 233, 254, or 330. 233 is always pink so they're out... 330 is usually multi colored so that puts them mostly out. 254 is always full on blue and nothing else so my guess is 254. 254 needs to learn that using the same robot for 7 games isn't a good idea. I think they figure that out after last year seeing that this year, they were the #1 ranked team in OPR ;)

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

I don't know who this "Plowie" is.


Dozer, on the other hand, uses yellow bumpers if he has a choice of bumper color, which would fit right into 330's blue-and-yellow color scheme.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

I think he can be called Plowie or Dozer. I've always called him Dozer but that was who I assumed they meant by Plowie. Lol.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Logan: Stop thinking. :-) Without a solid foundation of knowledge, it's not working very well for you. Put more effort into studying instead. There's a lot of information here that you can use to verify -- or contradict -- your initial thoughts. Check those thoughts before you post them, and you'll start looking a whole lot more clueful.

The robot in question is named Dozer. No question. He "can" be called Plowie, but making that mistake often summons his creator to set things straight.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

This article comes to mind about using the same robot for seven years in a row, and for most games isn't a bad idea. Even if it was bad scoring robot, Dozer would probably be really good for cheesecaking due to it's simplicity.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Haha. I always love how Dozer always somehow works for every game. Basically, every year requires driving and that's all Dozer does :) They need to keep the same design but add something of some sort. Haha

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

As much as we love Dozer, he doesn't have an arm and a big yellow sprocket so he can't be ours.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

The only robot I can think of that fits the category would be 148 in 2008. :P

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

2011 he had a mini-bot deployment system. :)

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

So do the other five teams .. or maybe they do bring a different robot each year and rotate among the three on the alliance?

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

The OTHER robots were all different every year. The differences could be rather subtle, but they were there. Dozer's main changes were number of wheels and addition of bumpers (and, in '08, he had an engine put on).

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

And the difference between "number of wheels and addition of bumpers" for Dozer and "subtle changes" for the other five robots was what, exactly? I'll grant that I have not watched the reveals pre-2013 like I was going to build them, but my general impression as I watched reveal videos for 2013 and 2014 was that it was the same six robots, with minor tweaks. My later viewings of earlier reveal videos (without the same immediacy) did not make me think otherwise.

And OBTW, my first three years of reveal videos has taught me that reveal videos, fully as much as the cake, and nearly as much as each of Dave's off-the-cuff hints, LIES. The hardest thing about each game (defense, defense, and litter, including not only defense nodles but game pieces dropped by you or your alliance partners) was massively underplayed in the video each of those three years.

OK, I've watched a few more, and it still looks like somebody comes to each show with a multi-jointed are, somebody comes with a single-joninted arm, and somebody comes with a tennis racket. The other two have a good bit more variation.

Second Edit: Now that I've watched more of the videos specifically looking at the robots, I do see that many of them had variation. However, single-arm, multi-arm, and tennis racket were pretty well represented throughout (as well as dozer), plus a number of utterly unexplained shooters. It seems like nearly every robot through these years had a magical magnetic field it could set up to attract that year's game piece into the manipulator, and turn off when it activated its kicker, shooter, or other launcher.

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Different grippers, different arms, different manipulators, they're all out there. Like many FRC robot teams, there is a "common core" that is built on, but the build-on is different every year.


I do recall Dave saying something to that effect, but it was *just* a *couple* years ago (er, closer to a decade).

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Summer CD...

Great observation!

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

Haha. True. But Plowie/Dozer is always the "runt" the other bits can actually score a lot of points with their use of plungers 😂😂

Re: Question for FRC Game Animations 2008-2014
 

FTFY.

Actually, someone did analysis a year or two ago and found that Dozer is actually at least competitive in any game he's played, in terms of points scored or assisted.


Dozer also provides the comic relief. The little guy who's always getting beat up...