Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I would like to conduct a survey to gauge the community's opinion on the most effective single robot at any game in FIRST history. This can be determined by many statistics, such as OPR that year or performance at competitions. However, this is for a single robot, not an alliance. Here is my opinion:

254 The Cheesy Poofs 2014
This robot, named Barrage, was dazzling from the very beginning. From the release video showing its hot 3-ball auto, to its nearly flawless performance at every competition it attended, it never ceased to amaze. It won every one of their season events (Central Valley, Waterloo, Silicon Valley, and the Championships), all of them famous for being some of the stiffest competitions in the world. Its final OPR was calculated to be 132.22, which was the highest in the world at that point. With only 16 losses the entire year, the Poofs certainly built a dominant robot. Not to mention, they broke the CURIE CURSE...

After, say, 20 replies or so, I will put up a poll of the top 6 selections for others to vote on.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

The most effective robot ever is MER Opportunity, Dave's Other Car that is still on Mars.

The most effective FRC robot ever was the 2002 BEAST (71).

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Most will agree with this. Some may argue its immediate predecessor, 71's 2001 robot.

No others are even close, or likely will be ever again due to trends in FRC game design.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Excluding the two super-dominant 71 machines, you could argue for:

• 1114's 2008 Robot
• 254's 2014 Robot
• 469's 2010 Robot

I think that's really all I can think of for dominant robots in the modern age of FIRST.

I recall having a discussion with a friend about which robot was more impressive, 254 in 2014 or 1114 in 2008. We concluded that while both were phenomenal, the fact that 254 managed to not only dominate, but do so in Aerial Assist, an extremely hard game to dominate, given the nature of the game to rely on alliance partners and such.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

My vote goes for 1114 in 2008

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

My vote goes to 71 in 2002 - no need for a poll. :)

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

71 in 2002, have you seen their "walking" design? It is ridiculous.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

71 in 2002 may have been the most dominant, but here's my vote for most impressive / most effective:

1717 in 2012

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

definitely Hammond 71 in 2002


modern age? 469 in 2010 in terms of ridiculous amounts of field control

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

254 2015 was far and away better than any other robot. I would place it after 71's OP robots and 469 in 2010.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I seem to have forgotten the unstoppable force that was Team Hammond in 01-02. It seems that this thread will soon be dominated by them. Therefore, I would probably declare 71 in 2002, closely followed by them in 2001 as the most effective, but I'd like to keep this going with some other robots. I love hearing about more robots to watch game footage of! Thank you all!

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

It may be appropriate to consider how effective it's possible for a robot to be within a game. I think that's the argument to be made for 254-2014, that it's hard to imagine a robot that's more effective. Maybe it was possible for 1114-2008 to lose, but they were incredibly effective.

As for 469-2010, there's no robot from the past decade that changed the game as much as they did. When they stepped onto the field, they became the focal point of the match. That describes their impact better than "effectiveness," because I don't think they added colossally more value to their alliance than the other elite robots of the year (1114-67-2041 might have won against 294-67-177).

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I agree with 254 in 2015. This was evident by their qual average at Silicon Valley. They were also pretty decent in 2014;)

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

For those around in 2002 (or know the story) what happened to 71 at Western Michigan Regional? According the TBA, they were 6-5-2 and lost in the semifinals.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

After seeing how they lost in other matches that year, my guess would be an fast opposing robot ramming into them at the start of the match to prevent goal control.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

One of the teams (66 I think) figured out how to get Hammond turned sideways before they deployed their walker, and since they couldn't turn, they couldn't get realigned to win. But 71 fixed that for champs...

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I'm going to go with the most effective robots from each of my years in FRC:

-254(2016) Instant aiming and near perfect shooting accuracy. Runner-ups: 5172 and 2481

-2826(2015) Their 28pt autonomous was nearly perfect, and a mechanical and programming marvel to pull off. They also scored the world high score at champs. Runner-ups: 1114, 148 and 254

-2481(2014) Not the Poofs!??! Yes, not the Poofs. This was Roboteers "breakout" robot. Having a fully independent swerve drive with a 270 degree intake, low center of gravity, excellent ball control and a consistent catapult made them a force on the field. They made shots while moving sideways. Runner-ups: 254 and 16

-2169(2013) They were a purpose built FCS that backed it up. King Tec had almost the highest release point possible for their Frisbee shooter and amazing shooting consistency. The only thing that could stop them was when they filled up the high goal. 44 Frisbees in the goal in Colorado finals 1-2.

-1717(2012) I thought this robot was fake the first time I saw it driving and shooting. Runner-ups: 67, 341, 2056 and 2826

-1114(2011) Every component on Simbot Steve is off the charts good, but Simbotics defining advantage was their quick, clean and consistent release of tubes. World high score at Waterloo. Runner-ups: 111, 254, 33 and 987

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

2169 from 2013 is one of my favorite case studies in good strategic analysis. Brilliant design and executed to perfection, although I wouldn't define it as . 2014 you really can't argue for anyone but 254 or maybe 469, although I'm sure 2014 was a breakout year for 2481, it wasn't a "dominant machine" in the way that the previously mentioned teams were.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Interestingly, by the time champs rolled around, 1425 was actually better than 2169 (I'm looking at OPR here, not at how far each team went, since 2169's alliance did beat 1425's).

of course, 118 beat out both of them on the OPR scale, so what does that tell you about Feeder shooter vs cycling :deadhorse:

I'd argue for 469 or 987 in 2013, though I think the beauty of that game was that it was literally impossible to be a complete powerhouse (my team tried to do everything. we failed miserably :P )

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I'd argue 2169 was better than 1425, although 1425 was excellent as well that year.

In 2013 I'd argue the best robot in the world was one of:

• 469
• 254
• 1114
• 2056
• 987
• 1986

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Gotta consider 67 too. Multi-position shooter with full court and cycle shots. 30pt climber with a 20pt dump. Could go under the pyramid. They were defendable, which is what ultimately led to their demise, but in terms of overall effectiveness, 67 needs to be considered.

However, I personally would pick 469.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

My opinion on no order:

71 in 2002, like a can grabber in 2015 but worse.
469 in 2010, we were actually allied at MSC and won. Literally a five minute drive to their school. (yes I know that's irrelevant)
254 in 2014, don't think much needs to be said here.
16 in 2014, just as a personal favorite.


On a separate note, some favorite rookies:

2834 in 2009 (not to brag or anything...)
5053 in 2014, good drivers meant so much for Aerial Assist.
4967 in 2014, same reason. Good drivers were crucial, regardless of shooting capabilities.
5980 in 2016, managed to get #5 seed at MSC, arguably the most competitive DC around, and even eliminated us in Octo-Finals.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Their robot was not at all built for quals. You got 3x the losers score, so if Beatty had all 3 goals the highest losing score the opponent was going to get is 20 points (10 per robot in home zone at end of match).

If I remember correctly, a thrown ball got stuck under them before they could grab the goals and that lead to their loss in elims.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I wasn't around back in 2011, but from the videos, 254 was one of the most dominant robots on the field. Perhaps it was the introduction of their motion profiling, but the way 254 played in the Einstein finals just dominated every other robot on the field.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Right. There were many matches where Beatty intentionally didn't control all three goals in an effort to help increase the losers score.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I would probably have to say that the 71 machine in 2002 was the best I've ever heard of, BUT, it was from a different era of FIRST. In the modern era, my few favorite machines are, in no particular order:

1717 in 2012: The robot was just absolutely magical. Nobody swerves like 1717, and their drivers manually targeted shots faster and better than most teams that used vision. (Also I am ridiculously sad that we didn't get to see what 1717 would've cooked up for Stronghold).

341 in 2012: A super simple machine, and indisputably, fantastically effective at playing every aspect of the game.

469 in 2010: The closest thing since 2002 Hammond that we've had to a game-breaking robot. And their genius was that it wasn't ridiculously complex, just bold and perfectly executed.

67 in 2013: I just really love it. 30 pt climb, dump, full court shot, cycle: that robot had it all.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Most effective at the game or most effective at their chosen task in a given year. I enjoy looking at robots that are the absolute best at what they choose to do. For that reason I have to give a hat tip to FRC148 and FRC102 for their lap runner robots in 2008 and FRC1503 for thier human load only robot in 2011.

If we are talking overall; I'll fall in line with a number of other posters; FRC71 2002, FRC1114 2008, FRC 254 2014.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

To insert a robot into this conversation that hasn't been mentioned yet, CD 2000.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Every year in the preseason, we talk about a chokehold strategy, and every year, we show video of Team 71 2002. Easily the most effectively executed strategy/robot in FRC.

However, that's far before my time, so I'm going to go ahead with 2169 King Tec and their monstrous FCS in 2013. Their shooter only took ~2 shots to dial in perfectly, and unless you threw up a 7' blocker in front of them, you could only watch as discs piled into their opponent's goal. Given maybe 10 extra seconds in teleop and playing undefended, I'm sure that they could shoot all 45 discs into the opponent's goal, a stat that no other team can challenge.

1114 in 2015 is a close second IMO, they built stacks from the landfill or the HP station (RAMP RAMP RAMP) like no other team could, and they had a very effective cangrabber at CMP as well.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

The poll is going up soon, and I'm very honored to be on one of the teams mentioned so far. Thank you guys from all of 2169 KING TeC! I'm sorry for any robots that didn't get mentioned in the poll, your opinions are still very important! I merely included the ones that have been mentioned the most as the most effective.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Is there any footage of this robot in its dominant form? I've been looking for years, but the only footage I've been able to find is of the match in which they broke a weld and were upset at the world championship. I've been hearing for years about how much of a dominant gamechanger this robot was for FRC, and would love to see it in action at the top of its game.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I was very impressed with 1425's shooter on galileo. They were very slippery on the defense, and had the ability to strafe towards the pyrimid when being defended by a blocker and shoot through the pyrimid very accurately. Favorite robot on that field by far. They even toasted us in a qual match.
Our robot was at its peak performance at the denver regional, there we had the possibility of doing the 45, but as the shooter was used so much there was some deteriation going on to champs which we could never rectify completely. The thing had a knack for jamming/tipping right at the most critical of times. IE. finals on galileo. It doesn't feel as bad when you lose to the eventual world champs though :rolleyes: .

I'm making a plug for 610 here just for the fact that the could go 6ish cycles regardless of the defense that was played on them. Now that was truely impressive.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

KINGTeC's 2013 Robot was incredible - until MN State in 2013 when a rookie team made 2169 cycle :yikes:

No doubt that 2175 and 2052 won that one outright...

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

2169's 2013 robot seems really out of place in this poll. There are several 2013 robots that I would say were more dominant than 2169, certainly more flexible. 2169 was a good full court shooter, but they weren't THAT much better at it than any number of other full court shooters, and they obviously we're quite limited when forced to cycle. To be quite honest I don't understand why everyone is talking about them like they were some kind of game breaker.

The best 2013 robot was probably 469, who excelled at all aspects of the game except for full pyramid climbing. The flexibility of their driver being able to switch from full court shooting to cycling on the fly, sneaking off full court shots when undefended and cycling while defended, complete with floor pick up and multiple autonomous modes, made them probably the most dangerous robot at the Championship.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Objectively I'd say 71 in 2002, but as my then-team 827 got totally owned by the 71 2001 robot, subjectively I'd say 71 2001. We latched onto a goal and then got dragged around for two minutes as if we weren't even there, and there wasn't a darn thing we could do about it.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

1998 - Team 47 Chief Delphi

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I love that we still don't have a consensus on who the best robot of that year was. It just goes to show how great of a game Ultimate Ascent was.

The best disc-scoring robots were 469 and 987, who were relatively equal, with 987 having the edge during autonomous and 469 having the edge during teleop.

254 and 1986 were the only robots that year with both 7-disc autonomous modes and 30 point climbs, and both were also excellent in teleop, although 254's consistency left something to be desired sometimes.

1114 and 2056 excelled at specific roles, and I'd argue that they both built the ideal robot for what they were trying to do that year.

If I were the #1 seed, and I had the option of choosing any of these robots, I don't know who I would select. It would obviously depend on what my robot could do, but it would be a difficult, difficult choice.

Interestingly enough, only one of the robots listed above made Einstein that year.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

If we are talking about 2169 in 2013, I'd argue more for 2052 in 2013. They were one of the most accurate cylers ever, could switch to full court shooting in a matter of seconds and shoot quickly, and had a quick 10 pt hang. Highly underrated robot that year.

But I agree with the overall consensus that 469 was the most effective bot in 2013.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Heck, a case could be made for 842, who was capable of doing everything that year IIRC. They weren't perfect nor the best, but they were a swiss knife out there sometimes.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

There have been a select few robots that have satisfied the following criteria:

1. Won all of their events, including the World Championship
2. Were either the #1 alliance captain or first overall pick at all of their events

While I'm not saying this list is contains, objectively, the most effective robots ever, it is clear that they were dominant. And to someone like me who heavily values event wins and high seedings over more "soft" achievements like being highly effective in a match or two here or there, these robots have most effectively fulfilled the game challenge.

1678 in 2015
254 in 2014 (Waterloo #2 alliance captain; probably should have been first overall pick)
254 in 2011 (Galileo #2 alliance captain; probably should have been first overall pick)
67 in 2009
1114 in 2008 (Midwest #3 alliance captain; probably was or should have been first overall pick)

Honorable Mentions:
118 in 2015 (#2 alliance captain at Dallas; #1 alliance captain 148 chose 987 and lost to 118 in the finals)
469 in 2010 (soooooooooo close!)

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

The shooter was broken our very last match at champs from a tip, which is why we were not nearly as competitive at state. If we FCS'd we would have made ~60% of the shots in that condition tops.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I think it's incredibly telling that one of the robots in the running competed over a decade ago (Coming up on nearly 15 years ago actually), only exists in stories and a few grainy videos, and yet is still as ubiquitous as it is today.

My vote is for the 2002 BEAST.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Thanks for the shoutout. That was my last year as a student and although it is one of our team's favorite robots, it was probably one of our least effective ones in recent years. It was super over complicated and we spent so much time fixing rather than iterating and practicing with it. It was an attempt to be a utility arm robot like 67 in 2012 but we didn't focus on making it as simple as possible. For some reason we also neglected to think of gravity as a valid way to load the frisbees. :confused: Overall it's the simple concept of being the jack of all trades and master of none that we fell into and it showed on the field and during alliance selections.

If we could do it over, we would likely have made a robot like 610 or 1986.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I know and totally agree! The early days of FIRST truly put out some amazing design ideas, many of which have been limited with today's countless regulations and build rules. I still gawk at designs like 111 Wildstang in 2004, or to go wayyyy back, Texas Instruments' robot in 1994. For some reason I am amazed by the execution of this design, and am extremely entertained by watching it.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Here is a video of them albeit they don't appear as dominant in that particular match.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Sometimes being 2nd best is better than the best overall pick. Such the case at Waterloo 2014 also. This...at least in the eyes of the #1 seed. In both cases, it involved 1114.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I have to disagree with everyone saying 71 in 2002 was the most dominant. In 2002, 71 was beatable, and the last match of champs that year was won by 66 and 173, not 71.

You wanna know who wasn't beatable, at all? 71 in 2001. The nature of that game made it that no one, no one could stop them.

At least, that's what I heard from listening to Karthik :yikes:

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

We had 1717 at a slight edge over 2056 on Curie in 2013. Both of them (and 1310 and 359) turned us down...

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

To be fair, 1717 paired with 1678 better than 2056 that year. 1717 could full court and cycle as well, while 2056 was a pure floor pickup, like 1678.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

They didn't win IRI that year :)

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

To add even more fuel to this fire. 118 easily could take aim as being the best robots that year. Even after stripping away the climb and full court they had one of the fastest load times in the world (matched only by 469) and were an excellent front court sweeper when they needed to be.

My vote will always go to 469 as the best/most complete robot, and 1114 as the most valuable robot for 2013.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Umm... with our (4607's) 84" blocker? Probably not - we scouted 2169 at Champs and placed the ugly addition heading into the Tournament - which is why we placed that on. When 4656 was picked just ahead of us (another defensive robot), 2052 and 2175 had little to choose from for defense bots. Mind you, our rookie robot was nothing to be admired looking back - but it did its job.

I do agree, however, that there were some issues with 2169 at State that year. We do wish 2169 was at State this year, we have learned a lot from 2169 in the last few years - still one of the best programs in the state!

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

3476 had a load time competitive with both 118 and 469, as they could load two at once similar to 469. Every time I watched them load their machine I constantly thought they drove away before they finished loading their hopper, but no, they were just that fast.

It's very hard to define a "best" robot for 2013 because of all the different ways to score and all of the different needs of varying alliances, but I think with all the different ways to score it has to go to a team that gets "extra" points one way or another, be it via pyramid climbing or autonomous or what have you. 1114's fast, consistent climb added points that were more scarce than 7 disk autons, and their cycling was among the best in competition, so there's a strong argument to be had for them. Yet, 67 at their peak simply got more disks in the goal. Ultimately I think 469 was the best simply because they could play *any* role on an alliance (excluding climbing) at the very top level - they were one of the best cyclers, one of the best autons, AND one of the best full court shooters, all with the same robot, without compromising effectiveness in any of them. THAT is very rare in FRC.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

I would say 2015 wave robotics robot. That machine was so INCREDIBLE but, to
bad it didn't win in Einstein.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

Yes, true.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

67 and 148 were very closely matched that year and it came down to how each did in the last couple of matches. That's why we put 148 higher that year.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

67 was my favorite that year, in part because we got to play with and against them that year on both Curie/IRI and loved their robot design. Those matches were exciting.
I wish we could have seen 3476 up close. That robot had such a low profile and it was an extremely effective.
I would also agree that 469 was overall the best because of what you mentioned. They could do it all.
But if I had to choose a robot to align with, giving us the best chance to win, it was 1114.

Re: Most Effective Robot EVER?
 

1678's 2015 robot could also be added to this list. Einstein was all about getting the cans, and 1678 was unmatched at getting them on Einstein.