Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

Instead of retyping something that has already been well stated in real time, I will just post the link.
It is a play-by-play of the Finals in NJ!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=66

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

Build a robot that does as much as possible well. For example we are great at hanging, good at the 2x mltiplier, and not too bad with the small balls. Even in an alliance with a bulldozer we can do well. If we are matched with a great herder/hopper we will cap. If we have a great capper, we will hang. If we both need to push, thats fine, we will push and then hang. The key this yearis versatility and having an autonomous that knocks off BOTH teams balls during autonomous (but of course has an option to only hit one side note:see team 33, they do this VERY well). That way you can maximize points and chances of being selected/winning a lot.

~The thoughts and oppinions expressed above are those of an individual, not necessarily those of an entire team.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I watched the VCU finals, then the rest of the Oregon regional... from what I could see, I think the best team would be:
one robot with good ball collecting and a good human player
along with another robot that can cap the stationary goal from behind, and then quickly hang.

At VCU, Buzz had amazing ball collecting ability, and a great human player. But I didn't see many of their partners taking advantage of capping a full goal.

I think in general the cap-and-hang robots will dominate the preliminary rounds. A cap-and-hang team should be able to score 100 pts on their own (5 small balls in stationary goal, 2X cap, and hang).

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I think what will win this year will be the same as always. Organization and team work. Know your alliance, plan out, and execute, and any robot can do fine. :)

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

As an observer at BAE in NH, the teams picked were mostly hangers. 2 robots hanging = 100 points. 4 out of 6 balls in goal = 20 points. After doing the math it is hard to beat. It was a difficult task to have 4 hangers at once unless 1 was from the field.
I did notice that from day 1 to day 2 then to elimination rounds that the game changed each time. We figured that the 1st day averaged about 35 points per side. That was a lot different than the finals.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

just got back today from the portland regional. good stuff, but many robots weren't functional, and the top seeds were weak teams who truly got lucky with good draws for partners in the qualifying matches.

the top seed won the whole thing -- titan robotics, 492 -- who had a VERY effective ball herding and VERY consistent 2X ball manipulator, and they had the autonomous knock-off 10 pt. ball DOWN. they ALONE averaged 70 - 120 points/match. they made excellent picks, and their alliance partner was a consistent hang-only robot.

i could rattle off other factors, but i'll end with this -- it is true that penalties killed alot of teams, but also, i think the push/shove/interference factor will increase exponentially. teams will go into a match with a sole purpose of just shoving/toppling the opponent. that's what happened ALOT in the later rounds. either an incredibly good ball herder or a very consistent hang bot are likely to emerge as top seeds and winners. but i'm pretty sure at nationals there'll be bots that can do some other crazy thing...

our team, team 824, was prequalified for nationals, so we made the ultimate sacrifice at portland to test and improve our bot for nationals, instead of focusing on trying to win portland. we've got an ambitious design that's gonna wow the crowd, and we're a month away from showing it off -- watch out!

congratulations to all the teams that have played so far, and good luck to the future regionals.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

Is it just me or does autonomous doesn't seem as important this year as it was last?
Last year if you made it up the ramp and knocked the bins over to your opponent's side you had a pretty good advantage over them. This year releasing the balls is only a big deal to ball collectors and it didn't kill them to wait anyways.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

Two robots that can hang, regardless of the other tasks that they can do. It helps if one robot can control the bar while the other can handle small/big balls before getting on the bar in the last 30 seconds.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

Another vote for keeping it simple. Do one thing well, not two things ok. The great alliance picks will come to you if you can shine at what you do.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I like what 237's robot did. Being able to move back and forth on the bar seem like it was a great advantage.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I know that many of the matches we were in the whole objective of our strategy was to get on top and play king of the hill and not let the opponents up there...For the most part the whole match was determined with the fifty points from hanging....From what I saw at BAE was that pushing balls is impossible so the other deciding factor was who put the most human player balls (the six from the start +1 or 2 more) in the stationary goal.
A couple teams handled the big balls well enough to be consistant.

-Pat

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I agree with the idea of doing one thing and doing it extreemly well

if the ball catchers we have seen on CD are coupled with an excellent HP - they have the potential to rack up 100 to 120 points just buy scoreing the small balls

twice that if their alliance caps the goal, or an extra 50 if their alliance can hang - that puts them in the 150 to 240 point range

from what we have seen, breaking 100 points is above average

or a team that can collect balls from the floor is in a similar postion, maybe even a little better because they can pick up missed shots, and balls that came over from the other side of the field

in general, if you try to build a bot that can do everything, then it only does each individual function in an average manner - if design your bot to do only one thing, then you can devote all your resource, weight, motors, sensors... to doing that one thing, and doing it exceedingly well

this year, that one thing appears to be getting the balls from the field to the human player.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

I thought about the same thing, than it reminded me of kickoff where it was said that you can build the simplist machine and still win.

Maybe this is FIRST's way of giving some of the teams (and rookie teams) who couldn't get their auto mode working last year (or not working consistantly) a chance.

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

The alliance that won in NJ had the following robots:

237- was in every round, was hanging within 30 seconds every round and slid across the bar with an awesome mechanism, stopped someone from hanging practially every round

303: The best small-ball sucker that could also cap effortlessly

56: a large-ball capper who could also hang well

Re: Winning Robot Strategy
 

at the BAE Regional, it seemed to be that robots that could hang were the ones that were dominating. One of the elimination rounds, 4 robots were hanging on the bar. Most of the teams in the elim. rounds were hangers, except a few.