VCU Live-Update Standings
 

This is going to be sweet. Using the magic of AirPort and the free internet available at the Segal Center, I'll be able to post updates of the VCU Regional standings, match results and other comments.

This post will be update regularly. Incase the internet is down, it will be updated at the end of the day.

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Where are you planning to post these to?

I will edit the above post every time something new happens.

Cool man.

Can you just make a new post so that it bumps the thread up?

It'd be much easier -- we wouldn't have to open the thread every time to see if there's an update.

HI GUYS! I'm live from VCU using my iBook to connect to the internet! I'll be your MC on CD for the competition. So far there are lots of people here. TONS. And to add, OVER 4,000 BINS WERE ORDERED FOR THE REGIONALS!!!! My parents are both working the floor as a field reset and a judge. Teams are arrinving by the second and I'm loving this! I saw 122's KinghtKrawler and hopefully I can see it latter.

Cool keep us updated on how the different types of bots fare! I can't wait to watch the webcast!
Gotta love Apple wireless technology!

I'm interested to see whose predictions are right. Will the stackers dominate? Will the KOTH bots take it all? We'll have to wait and see...

Here is a link which is currently showing the webcast of the practice rounds!!! Not much audio, it came on once for about two minutes and then went back out, but I like what I see so far.


http://robots.larc.nasa.gov/vcu_2003/webcast.html

rather than edit a message board post, why don't you go into the Tigerbolt chat room? It would make it alot easier.

Also Joe, please go tell the announcer that its a stack, not a tower!!!

That announcer.. I don't like his voice or demeaner. I mean.. come on now.. he's just.. meh.. I don't know, something about it makes me want to not listen.

I'm not too impressed by what I've seen so far, but I havn't seen much of the rounds. I've seen one robot holding a box, which it ended up dropping.

I don't think the "live updates" are neseccary though, unless you want to host a server with a continuous update being made

Sorry guys I didn't update. I was sooo busy today doing scouting. I saw the 122 KeneticKrawler in operation and meet Dave today. Also around 2pm the annoucer came on to say "The person with the grey Segway please remove it from the pit unload station, it will be towed." Yes Dean was there, and Woodie, but it was sooooo under the raidar. No annoucement. No Segway. I had to look up and see a guy with denim on with puffy black hair to find out he was there. Dean looked a little sad/mad today, don't know why. He was also checking his mail on his phone a lot, problably some things from DEKA comming through. Woodie was there and 384 brutaly attacked his shirt with around 10 signatures with '384' on it.

Now to what you all have been waiting for: THE ANNOUCEMENTS!!

-Bins were breaking, but not as much as throught would.
-Autonomous is a big pain. Lots of times people forget to turn it on, on their controller. MAKE SURE YOU DO THAT!
-10 seconds is fine enough for you to stack your boxes with the other team and get back.
-TANK TREADS ARE PRACTICALY USELESS. From what I've seen they slipp a lot.
-Many bots have the problem with going up the ramp at the wrong angle, and getting stuck. Make sure you guys are flexable on this.
-Many teams didn't do auton.
-Only 5-6 teams did an auton program that nocked down the wall of bins.
-King of the Hill wins it.
-Although I will see what happens durring the qualification rounds, stacking never happened today. NEVER.
-Many teams had their stack sensors off by a long shot. They over shot and ran over the field and got stuck.
-MANY TIP OVERS! If your bot is over 3' tall, make sure your weight is under your mid line! Robodogs got knocked over durring every practace.
-Line tracking is SLOW, but is good if you are like 343 and have huge sails.
-The field takes no time to re-set. The robots are barely off before it's done.
-Limbs were flying everywhere! A light cover was smashed, lexan flew off, and an arm came off.
-Robots that were off durring auton went up field barriors and got stuck. BE CAREFUL!
-There is a new LIVE scoring system being used! Using PDAs, the score is updated constantly on the screen a lá ESPN style in the upper left corner. It shows the score, if players are on their pads, and displays what regional you are watching.
-There are gates to enter the pits where a person is standing to make sure people are wearing safty glasses.
-THIS GAME IS EXTREMLY EXCITING! Compared to last year where I was litteraly sleeping through the practaces, this year is amazing.

As for my favorite bot? Well, I'm not saying yet. But it does knock over all the bins on the wall at once. That's just a hint.

hrm... that one sounds familiar.... we need more hints!! :]

Thanks for taking the time to update things from the regional.

We couldn't see this on the webcast. How'd it happen, most often?

This was noticeable. It seemed as if there was very, very limited cross-field movement going on. Not many teams traversed the ramp, and even fewer teams were passing under the midfield barrier. I saw nobody trying to move bins around.

One team managed a stack of two. 122 stole a human player stack, but wasn't able to put it down.

It was slow, but it seemed that it gave those teams an advantage over teams that did nothing at all. Even if they didn't get to wall in autonomous mode, they were a bit closer than everyone else once driver control started.

Did 343 line track? It seemed like they were dead reckoning, but they always ended up way off course.

I was a little unhappy with the inconsistencies in practice times.

On the webcast, we couldn't see the entire field, but the real-time scoring didn't even seem remotely accurate.

I hope it's better in person. Today had to be the most boring practice day I've ever seen.

It is M. It's more exciting in person. One robot smoked, tons of tipping over, lots of loud sounds, it was great. As for the live scoring, it wasn't 100% accurate the whole time, but they were getting used to it today. It should show an accurate score, but not 100% so you know who wins.

Gahhh.. I know what you mean. The announcer's voice was difficult to listen to.

It was difficult to really see much of anything through the webcast. I'm sure it will be more exciting in person, but today it wasn't that exciting at times.

hehe - that was us. We dragged our light around during the second half of the second practice match. I was very impressed that more damage wasn't done. We were attacked by a stack, instead of the other way around, and a bin destroyed the piece of lucite our light was on.

The practice rounds were very exciting. Every so often you would hear a huge crash and come running from the pits to see a bot on its back. It happened far more often than I thought. Also, I was surprised to see how many bots couldn't get up the ramp at all.

The biggest observation is that stacking is absolutely useless, as is the ability to move stacks. Stack attack and defense of the human player stacks seemed to be the best strategy. And KOH definitely wins the match.

I agree about the annoying announcer. And they need to TURN THE MUSIC DOWN! When you can't even hear your co-driver who's yelling at the top of his lungs right into your ear, and its only a practice day, something is wrong. I'm wearing hearing protection all day tommorrow because it was getting to a point that it was seriously damaging your hearing.

Other than one lapse in gracious professionalism which I go into in another post, it was a fun day, and I'm looking forward to tommorrow!

it turned out stackers weren't effective at all- not enough time to do anything

I could barely hear the music. It might be because of how the speakers are now with them close to the drive stations.

in the pits it was fine, and in the stands it was maybe a little loud but ok, but it was so loud on and around the field that verbal communication was impossible. I also think they slowly cranked the volume up as the day went on.

VCU has live team rankings here...


http://robots.larc.nasa.gov/vcu_2003/va_rank.html

http://robots.larc.nasa.gov/vcu_2003/va_rank.html

VCU rankings, so far its been updated every 10 minutes or so.
The webcast is doing well so far.


Wetzel

After a few rounds can someone tell me how....
well auto. mode is doin?
Like are a lot of teams being able to knock over the bins in auto mode?
Also does it seem to be that the first 10 seconds of the match predicts the team who wins?
How are stackers doing?
Thanks
Good Luck to all the teams at VCU!

i'm dying here guys. i'm stuck home this weekend. PLEASE post updates!!!!!