What will the winning robot have?
 

Let's start a thread to think about the wining robot(s) in each of our regionals. Put a lot of thought into it. Everyone post one feature or function you think not "a" winning robot will have but what "the" winning robot will have. Hopefully when this thread gets a couple pages long everybody might rethink their designs a little bit. :)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Good partners.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The most important feature of the winning robot will be it's ability to effortlessly cap the tall goal with a vision tet in automode, faster than anyone else so they don't have problems with fighting over the same goal. Doing so gives this bot a cool 9 points and 3 different places to get a row all before the end of automode. With this excellent start there is no stopping it!

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I think a winning bot will have an outstandingly efficient autonomous mode, and the ability to manipulte tetras quickly throughout autonomous mode. Speed and agility will also be paramount.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Wheels. ;)

At this point, who can tell what it will take to win? We'll see in a few more months...

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I have a few words to say about this. First thing the teams need is a kickn' arm. Second, is a powerful drivebase. Third, is LUCK...tons of luck. And lastly, have good/great alliance partners. I think we will see a lot of the same "concepts" in drivebases and arm's but each teams will have their pros' and cons'. Good luck to all teams!

-Kyle

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning teams will have a very good coach.


Wetzel

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

good fundmentals (Powerful Drive Train, Superb Chassis Design, Manueverablility, and Autonomous)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

A coach with knowledge in game theory who can apply it on the fly. It's my opinion that it really doesn't matter how great the robot is. Even simple push bots could win if their coach knows where to send the drivers.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning robot will have experienced drivers who work together.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I'd have to agree with the previous posters who've said it. It will be a very quick thinking, strategic coach that can keep track of the ownership of goals and communicate efficiently with the drivers and human player of not only their own team, but perhaps even their alliance's teams to communicate a shift in strategy.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning robot will have a team that has thought of a lot of defensive and offensive strategies for itself to use and to counter-react w/opponents strategies in both best and worst case scenarios. This includes autonomous as well as human driving. A "little bit" :) of scouting might be of assistance

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Versatility. A winning robot will need to be able to shift strategies between matches based on their allies/opponents.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

You can't get very far without capping or some sort of tet manipulation. The best you could do is repeatedly pin all the other bots preventing them from doing anything, and then make it to the endzone in time for the 10 point bonus. And then your seed would suck.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Good Programming i think, if you can get it to do a lot of things in autonomous mode then the rest of the game will be defensive.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The ability to quickly load and store multiple tetras on the robot.

--Petey

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I think the winnning robot will have MOE green paint (and not to cheat and distract the sensors) j/k


I think it will have to have a good strategy for its desigin, if it is a blocker bot then it must be able to block more then one bot at a time or multible goals, if it is a capper bot then it must have a way to get around the blocker bots.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

who says you cant have a unicycle robot? or a hovercraft, or a tracked, or a ....well ill save these for another thread.

the winning robot will have drivers/coaches/hp with decent amount of sleep the night before

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

its going to be a box with a stick on it.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

a great and durable drive base with an excellent driver/operator duo.

also great luck with alliances and just plain old luck on the field!

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

i think the winning robot will have good alliance partners, an autonomous mode that includes knocking down the hanging tetra and stacking the reflective one, and also the robot would be able to hold multiple tetras at a time already stacked inside the bot and then just stack them all at the same time and do it quickly

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning robot will have control of the center goal. There's a possible 40 point swing right there.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Fetch Yes!!

I can only say two words, please dont ask me to describe them,

TETRA SPITTER ( i said it FIRST)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Controlling the center goal alone is a 0 pt. swing. You have to control atleast 2 other goals (in the same columb/diagonal/row as the center) to make 10 points for a 20 point swing.

The winning robot will have to ability to...well...lets just say the coach is probably going to be key in this game with 9 places to score and 5 other robots on the field 3 of which are against you. It gets pretty deep. They said it at kickoff, the driver can't be stategizing and driving at the same time; there is just too much :ahh: !

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

not to be picky but the most possible points from the middle goal would be 43 pts. since you would be adding 3 pts from the tetra it's self... team did a lot of this the first few days.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I know it sounds obvious, but the winning robot is going to be the most reliable design. Whatever strategy it picks, it is going to accomplish the same thing during every autonomous mode (and it'll be a big strategy) and never break down, and continue an effective strategy throughout the match that the team is able to adapt based on the oponnents.

To review: Reliable and adaptable.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning robot will have a transmission other than the one that comes with the kit.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I think the winning robot will be the same as every other year, a robot that is excellent at ONE thing. A robot that can do one thing well every single time. I know our team ran into trouble when we tried to have it do multiple things. The most important thing to do is make your robot desirable so that in case you aren't one of those lucky few who are seeded, teams well remember that your robot did the same thing constantly, so they can count on you.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The winning robot is definately going to have to be able to take a beating without breaking much or give out one heck of a beating

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I hate to be picky too (actually thats a lie)...but you can get more than 43 points from the center goal...the 40 points from rows, 3 points for EVERY tetra stakced on it (not just one), and 1 point for every tetra nder/in it.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I would say that if you were going for the aggresive 1-2 plan, you would need to pick the most efficent robot out of the opposite team to pin and allow your partners to quickly gain the middle goal. I belive that just like tic-tac-toe, the middle is key to getting those gracious points. But taking out their most effective robot with a simple push bot will be very game-deciding.
-Zone

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

1458 knows a thing or two about the effectiveness of pushbots... we saw this in Sacramento last year. An effective strategy for any game.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

A robot that can successively hassle the opposition bots with the ability to control the middle goal and has great intra team and intra alliance communication to properly strategize will rank very high. Of course, it's not a winning robot that's gonna win this game, but a winning team. A single robot will not be able to handle the many complexitites of this game, and ultimately neither will 3 individual robots.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Certainly a robot with a reliable and simple mechanism, specialized in some stratategy. Combining it with a good alliance, we have a great competitor.

But, off course a good coach helps :D

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

cg half inch off Field(ours was like 1.5" last year).

last year almost every single one of our team mates tipped over in ever game.....

it defiantly needs to be modular. imagine the possibilities of different arms and such depending on your team mates. this also makes it easy as hell to fix.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

An ice pick on the end of the arm.

Seriously, the ability to cap the middle in auto.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Good Coordination between all three of the alliance parters for any given round. This can't be a solo free for all and everyone will need to work closely with their parners if they want to do and win rounds

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

A robot that has an arm that can pick up a tetra in any position (where the arm rotates to grab the tetra), stack, and drop tetras at will. Autonomous is also key, and so is a two-speed tranny, which detects when there is a collision and switches gears. Programming is also key for the robot, and the ability to autonomously control (even in human control mode) complex systems.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I think the winning robot will have to be fast and effective. People are talking about alliances...of course other robots can help you win. That's why you scout to find the best robots to compliment what you do. The best robot however will be able to score fast and effectively. Probably some kind of capping mechanism. Good luck guys! :)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

i disagree that autonomous is as big a deal as everyone is making it seem....the max you can get from vision tetra 9 pts.....3 tetras.....i bet that gets beat fairly quickly....I think there are more valuable things to do in autonomous....

i think the winning bot will have a low cg and has to be able to take a tremendous beating.....oh yeah capping might be nice :p

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

well, you can have the ability to start off controlling the center goal. While that alone doesn't give you 40 pts, it DOES allow you to prevent the other team from gaining those 40 pts. (or with the right alliance, possession of that goal COULD actually give you 40 pts.)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Good drivers, reliable design (emphasis on good drivers). They're also going to have to be able to pin any other robot in the competition.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Ah, now we're getting into switching gears on the fly. High speed/low torque to low speed/high torque. It's an old technique in these games, but still quite useful if your driver is on the ball.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I dont see the big value of the center goal. Sure, it gives you a possible of 43 + points but lets talk some sense here. The only way to get a row out of the middle is to have the top and bottom middle tetras, or a tetra in the enemy's base line. With 3 robots on the enmy team, do you think you will be able to cap and hold a tetra in the enemy's last row? If you do, youd have to defend it throughout the match, youd be stranded far away from tetra input into the game (human or automated) and your liable to get it capped when you rush back to the line for the +10 bonus, or when the enemy bots are coming home. Sure, it sets you up for more rows, but they will be very hard fought. I think the wining robot will put 2-3 tetras on each of thier back rows positions, claim a tetra on the top or bottom middle row, and then defned those four.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Hey I'm On the Chief Delphi team and I'd have to agree. The robot my have all the bells and whistles in the world but with out a great team, it might as well be a pile of scrap.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

This game is already crazier than last year. Nothing is obvious. Good luck everybody...

but i think that the winning team/ best robot is going to be the robot that can cap ridiculously fast when they need to, buckle down and play some defense and have some INSANE plays on the field that make the crowd go "WOOOOOO!!!!" coach and driver also very big

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

A fast durable chassis (2spd transmissions are over-rated for this game) and a drive team that can work together and a bot design that can allow for part to complete blind driving since the field is going to be a giant cluster-bang.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

in my opinion, the winning bot will most likely have a good vision mode coupled with a durable arm. durable arms will probably be a necessity this year since defensive blocking is allowed. cool colors are also a plus. :cool:

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

me, perhaps:)

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Durability, and team work.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

The center is the least important unless you have a team that will be able to grab 3 rows.
The autonomous mode is points you should get, but don't NEED. If you can lose the autonomous mode ito make room to carry and cap two tetras at once, you'll top the score you would get with autonomous.

Having a robot capable of scoring at a decent pace, is of course necessary, but game play tactics will result in the most points.
My strategy: Cap your home corner goals too high to cap further, then with time running short, cap their corner, and remain to defend it and prevent them from getting in their end zone. At the least, you're disrupting rows and keeping them out of the endzone. With luck, you're scoring 10+ points while taking away their 20.
The corner goals are, coincidentally in a corner. Its easy for one robot to defend one, and near impossible to defend both.

Construction wise: I expect a robot able to safely carry two tetras to develop a significant score advantage, and win.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

I think communication and strategy are far off more important than any technical ability... I mean, sure, it helps to build an efficient bot, but having a quick-witted coach with fast thinking and communication skills is extremely crucial. It needs to be someone with a great vision of the field, and that makes intelligent and quick decisions based on game possibilities...a brilliant strategy, to me, seems to be the key to winning...
And luck. Boy, will they be needing a whole lot of that...:yikes:

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Id haveta say very good strategy, good alliances, and good defense. I think defense plays a big part in this years game.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

cap two goals at once

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

although that's a good capability i doubt many teams will be able to do that effectively. i think you will see speed and efficency out of the single goal cappers

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

"The winning teams will have a very good coach."
Wetzel

"The ability to quickly load and store multiple tetras on the robot."
Petey

"its going to be a box with a stick on it."
Tytus Gerrish

Combination of the above 3. HIGH EMPHASIS on 3rd quote ;) the idea may look stupid, but looks can be deceiving.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

First thing I would say is that I see a lot of robots on their backs. Strong robots will do well. capping robots that do not flip will do well, and a good plan


Why go back to get the 10 points. Do you think a team could get 3 robots in the back line if you are there. It is going to be hard enough to get everybody behind the line. try to get four behind the line?


Auto will be good but easy to block

This game is going to come down to a couple of things just like in the past teams try to do things and when it comes time to do it they will see it doesn't work and do something totally different.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

It will not be 'A' robot that will win this competition. I believe that it will be a luck and chance game. As long as the team has on bot to stack tetras, one that will be fast at geting tetras out in the game field, and one that is skilled at just defence, that team will be well set for the match.

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

Let's not forget that you are allowed to drive within the goals...so if a robot on your team can do that then you should be set (as long as there aren't tetras under every goal on your side).

Re: What will the winning robot have?
 

As many people said, it will need a many well done autonomous modes

Also, it needs to be able to hold multiple tetras at once for the rush at the end of the match

It needs to have a team with some good strategists

It needs an arm that can cap all goals (including the center) efficiently