Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Hello everyone. I got thinking a bit the other night, about autonomous, and where our robot will go, what it will do, etc. It made me wonder, where will the other two robots be when we're doing our autonomous? Is everyone going under the low bar, or ending up right in front of the middle of the castle? What sort of common robot positions should we "play around" when planning our own autonomous?

So I'll get the ball(boulder?) rolling. We have 2 autonomous options.

1. Start in front of the low bar, drive under it, shoot a low goal. Begin teleop somewhere near the left batter. We would only stay on the left side of the field.

OR

2. Cross a category B/D defense. End near the edge of that defense, in the opponent's courtyard. We would stay very close to the edge of the outerworks the whole time.

So feel free to post whatever information you want to about where your robot will go during auto, where it will end, etc. I just figured this might be useful stuff for everyone to know when they consider their auto options, and whether they may hit other bots.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Forward, probably.

We're actually planning on developing a number of different autonomous routines, to be as flexible as possible with regard to position and defenses.

Of course, where we're planning to go and where we actually go are rarely ever the same (at first anyway.)

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We're planning for our primary auto to be cross a passive defense (not necessarily the low bar) and shoot a high goal.

Stretch goal is to do any of the three roles to defeat the drawbridge or sally port during auto:

• As spybot, drive 3/4 across the defense, wait 2 seconds, back out and clear the defense, shoot high, (optional) drive to the low bar, cross twice.
• Wait 2 seconds, drive to 1/4 on platform, wait 1 second, advance the length of the robot, wait 2 seconds, clear the defense and shoot high.
• Wait 4 seconds, advance to 1/4 on platform, wait 2 seconds, clear the defense and shoot high.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We are also likely to have multiple autonomous routines... Our programmers completely confident that we'll be able to have enough "go through and score a boulder" routines that we'll be okay with any defensive configuration and group of alliance partners.... They are also working on developing a far more interesting autonomous routine that won't likely have as much flexibility - and that will present a really good challenge.

Of course all of that will be for naught if we don't get them the robot soon...

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I'm pretty sure you won't get any points for "crossing twice", see the top of page 31 of the game manual. Once you've crossed any defense in auto, crossing any other times doesn't earn any other points or weaken any other defenses.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Right now we're looking at one autonomous routine which will handle 5 of the 9 defenses, in 3 categories.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I predict that most of the best teams will end autonomous in the neutral zone.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Will you still get the auto points for crossing a defense if you end the auto period in the neutral zone? Are the points "assessed" once your robot clears the defense, and they stay even if you return to the neutral zone?

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Sorry that wasn't clear: twice means once going from the courtyard to the neutral zone (non-scoring) and once going back into the courtyard (scoring). I should have said traverse it twice.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We are probably going to cross a defense (any one we can to be flexible) and shoot a high goal. If we make it, yay!, if we don't, we can pick it up in tele-op and shoot again. Vision definetly

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I predict most teams will end autonomous in the neutral zone- whether that's intentional or not!

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I'm hoping for a repeat of our Rookie Recycle Rush first practice match where we mistakenly programmed in 15 seconds of full speed into autonomous and proceeded to launch off the scoring platform and lay waste to the landfill. And the carpet. Totes everywhere!

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We plan to go to Standish and West Michigan for our autonomous. If it works out, we might go to Michigan State Championship with it.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Were planning on having upwards of 20 different auto routines we can cycle through on the fly. They will allow us to tackle category A and B along with the lowbar and spybot. From there we can choose which of the 2 low goals we are aiming for.

This will hopefully allow us to never have to worry about if our partners need a certain category of defense, or worry about what goals they're going for.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We're planning on the old auto standby of spinning in place. It's a oldie but a goodie.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Go over one of the three middle defenses that don't require a manipulator to clear and then score a ball in the high goal.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Hey, it worked in Lunacy ::safety::

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I seem to remember that happening during our very first attempt at autonomous back in 2011... Until now I thought that was an accident :D

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

has anyone considered a 2 ball autonomous starting as spybot? Just got the drive base to do the path and it seems like a good option

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Cool cartoon, but I don't think crossing one defense, scoring one boulder, and scaling, even with auto bonuses, will get you to Saturday afternoon much less victory on Einstein. Also make sure that those legs don't extend out so far that the bumpers come out of the zone before you leave the carpet.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

An evergreen autonomous strategy from a renowned and veteran FRC programming mentor.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

This year, you have the option of driving over one of them. :D

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

It's not my cartoon. Was done by Ryan from 2338/1732 and shown in a recent episode of FUN.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Yes, one of our key design choices along with scaling, HG/LG and crossings. Hope we pull it off.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

You can never have more than one ball (nor can you be loaded with more than one at the start), so unless you're talking about shooting the ball, moving into the neutral zone, sucking up a ball from the midline (w/out breaking the plane of the midline) then crossing a defense, and shooting again, your strategy isn't really allowed.

And if that is what you're talking about, I'm not certain that it's doable in under 15 seconds.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

I believe the timing is doable, if you specifically design your robot to accomplish the task. The risk is having a small miscalculation or misjudgment based on the slight variations on the field from venue to venue or in the (often unpredictable) actions of your alliance members during autonomous play. What makes this trickier than the three-tote autonomous routine last year is that the price of an error is a foul... In other words, you have to really have it dialed in before its worth trying.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Here is what we have planned and the order in which we be developing auton modes.

https://docs.google.com/presentation...it?usp=sharing

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Your last couple slides are impossible as you will not have low bar there, rest is what we are planning too.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

That's definetly doable under 15 seconds. Hard, sure, but it's possible

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

That sounds AMAZING! Any video footage!

Our team is planning on starting in the neutral zone with a boulder, and then crossing a category A/B/D defense and shooting into the high goal. These are the following programs we plan to have set up:
1. Start with boulder in neutral, cross defense B/D and shoot
2. Start with boulder in neutral, cross defense A and shoot
3. Start without boulder in neutral, cross defense B/D
4. Start without boulder in neutral, cross defense A
5. Start as spy bot with boulder in front of robot, move out of the way so alliance partner can shoot and then pick up the ball we're "controlling" and shoot that as well.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Where are we going? Well...

Over the defense and through the courtyard to Blue Alliance's Tower we go. The bot knows the way to carry the ball through the row of Outer Works.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Whoa, Solomon! What if you are on the blue alliance? Then what?!?!? :p :D

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Well... our alliance partners might not like us then.

Oops.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

Reach a defense at a minimum. Any more than that, we're not sure yet.

Re: Where will you go during autonomous?
 

We are planning on having an autonomous to go through almost any defense and score a low goal. We haven't figured out how to do the sally port yet but our programmers are working on it. I would like to have our robot turn around at the end of autonomous and return to either the edge of the defenses or return through the lowbar to be ready for teleop.