PITTSBURGH REGIONAL
 

This is the Pittsburgh Regional Thread! Please update here and discuss. I think the Pittsburgh Regional will be awesome! See y'all there!

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Well, no comments here yet! The advisors of my team and i are heading there tomorrow to see this years competition in person for research in planning. If you see some 20 year old walking around in a green collared t-shirt and jeans say hi!

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This is my second regional. The new rules make an improvement. Don't be shy, come visit and say Hi. :D :D :D

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Anyone know how Pittsburgh is going? Does anyone have what the final top 8 was, or what the alliances going into elims were? Any info would be great.

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http://www2.usfirst.org/2005comp/Eve...T/matches.html
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2005/rgevents.htm
so far it says 357 is in 8th..what does W-L-T stand for? :confused:

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W-L-T stands for Win-Lose-Tie.

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lol i knew that, ya know i was just testing u-swishy eyes- thanks!

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Can someone plz post the Top 8 and alliance partners along with how they did? The FIRST website isn't very helpful at this moment 9:36PM Eastern time

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This is one regional they needed a webcast for badly. :(

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I just got back from the Pitt Regionals. My team was the alliance captain for aliance #6. We could hardly tell who the other alliances were. There were so many technical difficulties there.

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Bernie here from MOE 365 to give a huge thanks to our alliance partners 869 and 808, couldn't have asked for a more perfect alliance. We were the #1 alliance, second place winners. Way to go 128, 1249, 395, and rookies 1708, Pitt regional winners. Still jived from the great atmosphere of spirit there, awesome. There were many technical difficulties, but i hardly notice cuz when I'm not scouting I'm dancing. Gotta give a shout out to teams 1634 and 63. For all you other teams, if you're going to Philly or Atlanta make sure to drop by and say hi or even better dance with us a bit. :D

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Here are the alliances, not sure how to place the other teams since they don't play against each other and I don't know the points for matches:

1. 365 869 808 , second place over all
2. 128 1249 395 1708, first place
3. 291 48 49
4. 357 846 337
5. 188 47 1014
6. 686 398 306
7.1243 226 117
8. 379 1006 1185

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All I have to say about Pittsburgh is WOW, that was such an incredible regional, there were so many great teams there and so many surprises in the matches. I will post all of my many many thanks and congrats later, I just got home from dropping a team mate off about 10 mins ago and I wanted to try that sleep thing i see people talking about here sometimes.







p.s Steve W is one of the coolest guys in the world and a great announcer.

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Random Bulleted comments because I'm too tired to string together a paragraph.

- Pittsburgh is most definitely one of the hilliest cities I have ever been too.
- But They have an awesome Machine shop.
- MOE you guys were amazing. If I had to pick the best robot there It would have been you. I loved the tetra manipulator on 188. And 357 your wheels are a work of art.
- Lots of techinical difficulties. Had to redo alliance selections (starting with 1st round pick of 7th seed) because of a glitch.
- Parking was difficult.
- Food was pretty good. Better than some regionals I've been too. They had Ice Cream.
- Thanks MOE for picking us the first time around, even though we didn't get to stay it was a compliment to be picked by such a great team.
- Thanks 1243 for picking us the second time. I know we didn't win but we played well.
- Congrats to 1014 on the Chairman's award and to 63 for the Engineering Inspiration award.


(Will add more thoughts as they come to me)

~Allison

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Anyone have other award info from Pitt? Chairman's, etc ...

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Off the top of my head,

Chairman's Award - 1014
Engineering Inspiration - 63
GM Industrial Design - 1249
Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology - 357
Radioshack Innovation in Control - 1006
Entrepreneurship - 365
Sportsmanship - 365
Rookie All-Star - 1708

The story of 1708 is one of the best I've ever seen. This team only got their crate during week 4. In two weeks, they built an extremely simple, yet reliable robot. They couldn't cap goals, all they would do was load from the HP, and toss tetras into the goals. Despite the "ghetto" look to their robot, they somehow always seemed to create a row! Unfortunately, they were overlooked during the alliance selection, and moved to the backup pool.

During the finals, Team 395 was experiencing problems, and were pulled from the alliance. Team 1708 was called in, and helped the alliance come from behind and win 2 straight matches to become regional champions! The celebration scene was amazing. I've never seen kids that excited. To go from thinking that your season was over, to being a regional champion in 20 minutes, it was fantastic.

Realizing their limited resources, and making the smart decision to go with a simple design was amazing choice. Knowing your limits and working within them is huge part of smart engineering.

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So 1708 was part of the 1st place alliance? That makes me so happy to hear. Me and one of our team's advisors talked to them a few min and they had a real great story! I hope the get to GA! Hopefully we will see you there! Im sure we can expect some good things out of you next year

365 - you guys had a great design, and had our other team advisor keep asking "Why the heck doesn’t someone play defense against them!?"

Team Lancelot - I liked the costumes, the shakers got a bit annoying ;) You had a great control box though!

To all the teams that let random guy with the actual FILM Camera take pictures of your robot - Thanks!

If team 1278 gets setup right, chances are we will do this regional next year! hope to see you all then!

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The Pittsburgh Regional was an incredible FIRST experience. On behalf of MOE 365, we would like to thank the organizers and all the volunteers for a terrific time. Special thanks go to our alliance partners 869 and 808 (Alliance 1). We made one heck of an alliance. We were so close to the big one. I congratulate the Regional winners - 128, 395, 1249, and 1708 (Alliance 2). You guys came from behind to take it.

Here are the details:

Finals Match 1 - Alliance 1 wins match

Finals Match 2 - Team 395 is having robot problems and calls in the stand by team at the top of the list, rookie team 1708. Alliance 1 apparently wins the match (and starts celebrating), but the refs huddle and call a DQ on an Alliance 1 robot for intentional tipping (I believe this is correct). This DQ gives the match to Alliance 2.

Finals Match 3 - Very hard fought match. Deciding factor was an opponent cap of Alliance 1's home row. Alliance 2 wins the match, and the Regional.

==============

I spoke with Team 395 after the event. They knew they couldn't run and Alliance 2 went with the standby team. Apparently, Team 1708 was having drive problems and there was frantic activity before matches 2 and 3 to get them mobile. Obviously, it worked.

While a huge disappointment to Alliance 1, it was a great story for Alliance 2. This is just another example of how you never know how a FIRST competition will turn out.

==============

Other comments:

* congratulations to all award winners, especially 1014 (Chairmans) and 63 (Engineering Inspiration)
* the venue (The Petersen Center) was terrific.
* it would have been nice to have more non-FIRST locals there. On Saturday, it appeared that only team members and their families were present.
* good dancing and spirit by many teams, most notably 47,287, 869, 379 (I'm sure I missed someone)
* there was much sharing in the pit area. At times it appeared as if there was just one big toolbox everyone used.
* food court had good selection and prices were reasonable, but lines were long and service was slow. Sub (hoagie) line was especially slow.
* field was experiencing more problems than I would have expected.

***NOTE***
MOE had an experience regarding the human player pads and our autonomous mode operation. While I cannot confirm it, we had a situation where our auto was stopping and or restarting a few times. One possible expanation that we came up with is that Agam, our human player, may have been shifting his weight on the mat, which caused our power to briefly go out and restart. I'm not sure if this happened at any other regionals, but if it does, look into this potential cause.

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Congrats and Thoughts on this regional -
1) Congrats to the winners and runners up teams - great job by all
2) I felt sorry for the hardworking techies who tried to keep things in order, too many restarts and replaying of matches, bad mistake on the alliance selection process, which was eventually worked out after re-selecting alliances 10 minutes into strategizing with the original alliance teams (1st time I have ever seen this mistake)
3) Good venue, good access to the essentials, (food, refreshments, restrooms) Good sight lines, good sound and lighting. Should consider flipping the pits and playing field sides around so the pits are next to the loading dock.
4) Warning touchy subject - Penalty calling was inconsistant from match to match, I know these folks are volunteers and all, but some didn't appear to have a understanding of the rules (reasonable to expect with non-FIRST fanatics) Numerous loading zone violations not called, hitting high on robot extenders while attempting to cap not called, "high speed" ramming not consistantly called.
5) Plywood covering floor was one trip hazard after another - warped plywood edges are dangerous
6) Thanks to the wonderfully honest people that turned in the lost cash that one of our students accidently dropped - whomever you are we are greatful.

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Pitt WFA winner??

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Congrats to #357 Royal Assault for Autodesk Visualization Award,



But, does anyone know how we (team #117) lost?!:ahh::confused:
http://www.steeldragonrobots.com/animation.html

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Mike
It is my understanding that we can push on an opponent robot's extenders if the intent is to block a scoring. This is the way the refs were calling it at GRL.

Matt B.

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I understood the rule to be, hitting low is okay, hitting high is not okay.
That is what the announcer said at the Pitt regional
I would say that blocking is okay, when blocking doesn't include driving the chassis such that it tips the other robot. Placing your arm in a position to not allow the opponent to stack is okay, moving it around in order to hit and knock a team over shouldn't be allowed. It gets fuzzy when the rule states that interacting with the tetra being held by one is team okay, as though the tetra isn't really an extension of the arm holding it. Looks like each regional will call it whatever way they interpret the rule - be sure to ask for clarification at the drivers meetings.

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I think Mike pretty much nailed it right on the head. When considering penalties for "high" contact on a robot, I think we should interpret this rule much like the charging/blocking fouls are called in basketball. If your defensive robot gets in between the goal and the offensive capper, raises its arm, and establishes a high blocking position before contact with the capper's arm is made, AND you hold your ground and don't use your arms to smack the capper's arm on the way in, then you are in a legal defensive position - if the offensive bot, in his haste to cap the goal, runs into your arm and starts to tip you, then the CAPPER should be guilty of "charging" and should be DQ'd immediately.













Thanks to Canadian teams 188 and 1006 for coming down and competing in the States. 48's looking forward to returning the favor in Mississauga.

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Bingo matt see u in indiana ure not geting woried are u how is b.v doing?

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After watching Week II Regionals, you will find a change in calls, the way things are "seen", and how penalties are placed, etc. Week I - Week II was a big change. Much more robot contact, pushing, and aggressiveness took place in Pittsburgh during Week II than in Rochester during Week I. Teams strategies were filled with the goal to return home (and sometimes with extra time left in the match) to receive those match points, opposed to Week I where teams were stacking all goals 5/6+ high with tetras to the very last second, and were not concentrating on returning home. I can't wait to see Week III and Week IV when teams start to come across each other and "mix" strategies, its going to be one interesting sight.

As a whole, penalties were lower Week II. Human players had a much easier time, and were not getting multiple loading area penalties on themselves when loading for not being "in their loading zone", or having both feet touching. The larger square works much nicer, FIRST made an excellent call with the change.

The venue, is a whole different story in itself. I was VERY displeased with the Petersen Event Center Parking. I fully understand it is in the city, but many other large venues, have planned out parking situations for events. Pitt is used to much larger events than FIRST. Even though the Event Center shares the same Block as one of the Nations greatest hospitals (UPMC). There were only 4 handicapped parking spots available.

Where one of you had stated earlier, that you had wished more individuals would have been able to see the competition (non-FIRST members). Paying $18 a day to park in a parking garage will not appease anyone. Even on-street parking cost me close to $10 per day for the time I spent at competition. I really hope that for the participants of the event, the organizers can find a way to provide better access to visitors and participants of the Pittsburgh Regional in the future.

Truly amazing story to the rookie Champions! I wish you the best of luck in the future. Congratulations to the Finalists and the Champions, for an excellent display of Gracious Professionalism!

Hi, Steve!
How are You?
Sorry, Greg made me do it. :yikes:

[edit] Instead of posting again, I'll just add on. I was hoping to see more auton modes developed by Week II. Week I started out slow, however the majority of teams had a movement, or a motion that they completed although it did not complete a task. By the time Saturday morning Week I came around, I would say 80% of the teams had some form of an auton if not just 'dehanging' the tetra. MOE, excellent auton, Friday early on I was shocked I had to check the clock to make sure it was still in auton time. By the end of Saturday though, there were very few teams Week II in Pitts that had movement in auton. Several, finally had movement, and a program in place. Hopefully in their next competitions they will "tweak out their bugs". [/edit]

[edit2] Hehe, I must thank the sound/music coordinators!! The music hit close to home while on the campus of Pitt, when the Penn State fight song was played three times alone on Saturday. I sang along proudly with a smile, Thanks! :p [/edit2]

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How was the autonomous strategy at the regional?






Congratulations to MOE and all of the other teams at Pitt! It sounds like it was a great competition. I wish I could have gone, but I'll see you all at Philly and Atlanta ! ! !!! !!!! !!.

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Pittsburgh was an awesome regional, despite the technical problems. Thnaks Steve and Blair for doing an awesome job! You guys are awesome! The venue was small and "cozy" compared to other regionals. Did anyone else have to deal with the EXTREMELY rude older gentlemen working at the sub place? They were awful; swearing when people ordered wrong or asked for the wrong type of cheese.
A few things that stand out:

MOE: You guys are AWESOME, good robot and spirit
ROBOCATS: Great spirit, thank you for choosing us as your alliance partners.
ROYAL ASSAULT: Loved the wheels!

The finals were awesome and I think everyone agrees when I say it was an upset. I thought MOE (365), 808 and 869 would take it, and it just proves how penalties are so key this year.

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The Pittsburgh Regional was awesome. Most of the time, sports teams get all the last minute excitement with the shot at the buzzer or the quick field goal. At the Pitt regional everyone thought it was over until we dropped the last tetra on the other alliance's goal to break up the triple play and win. It was amazing. There were many good robots at Pittsburgh. As for autonomous, most just knocked down the hanging tetra or started with the tetra and capped on the home row. Not many teams used the camera.

Moe-you guys are awesome, clearly one of the best teams around.
128-thanks for picking us.
395-we couldn't have been there without you.
1708-thanks for saving us in the last match.

We look forward to seeing everyone at The Buckeye Regional and Atlanta.

Tjude

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Wow I'm quite amazed I only read 2 posts about our wheels! but whatever it'll catch on soon! anyway I wanna say congrats to all the teams, by what I've read and heard from my team members who went(they had to call me whenever they could to tell me everything) and from reading everything everyone said about the competition i heard it was awesome! so great job, i can't wait to see you guys at Philly's! Don't be shy and come and say hi to us! oh and you gotta dance! i know MOE will be there dancing as well! :D :p

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I want to thank all at the regional. To be able to work with such a great group makes the "job" easy. Being an announcer becomes the easiest job in the world when you have so many great teams. I will tell you here and now that I don't think that there will be a more exciting final than the one in Pittsburgh. All six teams played well and hard. The "Cinderella" team of 1708 was great. Who would have expected to get only 2 weeks of build and still take home 4 trophies.

Thanks to all who spent time talking with me and introducing themselves to me.

The winner of the Woodie Flowers was the mentor from 128. I'm sorry that I am so bad with names and can't remember (I know that she will shoot me if she finds out I forgot, again)

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See me if you are really desperate. I am sure that I could have an extra with all of the events that I do. BTW Karthik got 2 at Pitt so if you got both of his you might make one to fit you. :D

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Travis,
If you pack that crate right, Karthik fits IN it. ;)

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Speaking of tshirt's... did you ever get one of our bad robot shirts? i know someone was trying to find you one...

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I did receive one and I am honored. I will even make a shameless plug that others should buy one from your team. They are great.

Glad to have you on Alliance #5. You had an awesome robot.

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The Pittsburgh Regional was a great event with a lot of great teams from the veterans through the rookies.

To say that the eliminations were full of twists would be the understatement of the '05 season. Let me clarify what happened, this is a little long:

Semis match 1, our robot had an intermittent autonomous signal and then remained with the "disabled" light on solid for half the match.

Right before the beginning of the finals, we found that we had a major odd failure. The two tabs that feed power into the control board that the female connectors slide onto had completely came out of our RC, so we were getting no power. We asked for a timeout to see if we could get them back in and crudely hold them in place, as we couldn't find the gentlemen from Innovation FIRST (no fault to him, he apologized later for having stepped behind the curtain and provided us with a spare RC). The 5 minute mark comes and passes, and we know we're in trouble. We attempted to draft 1708 knowing that we were dead on the field, but unfortunately the refs ruled that we were too late and had to place our robot on the field. So the first match, our robot sat dead and our alliance partners had to fend off the mighty #1 alliance by themselves which resulted in a loss. Right after the match, one of my students runs up with the replacement RC with the program loaded. So again a see of red shirts descends upon the robot trying to swap out the boards. Refs inform us that MOE maybe calling a timeout. The unofficial agreement with the ref is that if MOE calls a timeout, 395 is playing, if they do not call a timeout please have 1708 come in and play. From working with some of the their 1708s students prior to elims, we knew that this was a good group of students with an amazing story, who were gracious and appreciative for making the event. So we were more than happy to know that they would be the one's joining our alliance if we were to make the call. Refs are asking for a decison, so we welcomed 1708 to the alliance and sat " Too Spicy" for the remainder of finals. Second match of the finals, 1708s right side drive was not working and things looked grim. After the DQ for intentional tipping we went right back to work trying to get them driving. Tethers came flying in, zip ties were cut, connections were checked and rechecke. Frantic moments and then the drive side roared to life.....

On behalf of 395, 2TrainRobotics, we'd like to thank:
128 for drafting us both times, and having faith in us from the beginning to the end.
1249 for being an amazing alliance partner and a fun group to work with.
All the members of 47 for coming down to cheer us on, due to the fact that all 4 teams of our alliance were extremely small teams.
1708 for coming in and delivering perfect execution in our strategy (don't tell my drivers but had our robot been running, I don't know if they would have done it as well. We are thrilled that you guys made it as rookies and got the conformation from the sponsor that you will be heading down to Nationals.

It was our pleasure to run with you three awesome teams. Thank you guys for being open to strategy and perfectly executing the choreographed plan in quarters, semis, and finals.

I'd like to personally thank Mike Martus, for assisting us in trying to repair our robot, as well as providing me with advice and coaching suggestions. Mike, I'm extremely appreciative for you always there for me when I needed.

We wish all of you the best at your other regionals and will be looking forward to seeing all the teams at Nationals.

-wayne

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I believe that was also suggested a couple times. :p

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Pitt was a really nice regional

Nice arena, great teams, great location

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Pitt had an awsome gathering of teams. Congrats go to the teams in the finals and everyone else for that matter. It was an excellent matchup and you guys showed your skills very well. Good luck to all your bots in the future. What was up with that cow that was walking all around though? Oh, wait, that was me :D

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I would like to thank 128 for drafting a second year team, 395 for being a great Alliance partner, and especially 1708 for coming through in the clutch.

I would also like to thank MOE 365 and Team 388 from Grundy, VA for the help they gave us with our auto code problems, and our mentors, Team 337 Starbots, for loaning us some wheels when we burned ours off to the rims in practice.

Pittsburgh was a great and exciting regional, lots of sportsmanship and help in the pits.

Thanks,
Greg Miller
Team 1249

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Sue Godez is the 128 mentor. Congrats to Sue for the award! And thanks to 188 (and 47) for picking us as alliance partners. Hope to see you at the (inter)National Championships.

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357, did you guys have the Omni Wheels on all 4 corners? I kept trying to convice the advisors i was with that your movements were by design!

Me: "Look! they just crossed about 15 feet horizontally!"
Mr R: "Your crazy, they were just spinning there wheels!"
Me: "THERE OMNI WHEELS! THATS HOW THEY WORK!"
lol

Verry cool idea btw, made me think i was crazy untill i got a better look at what you were doing.

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Yes, they are omni wheels, here is a link to our thread discussing them.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ht=omni+wheels

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Rich,

Don't give anyone any ideas. 1114 and NiagaraFIRST.org are always looking for ways to cut travel costs. :ahh:

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[quote=MARK]How was the autonomous strategy at the regional?



We got one of our programs to work pretty consistently, starting with a tetra, capping the center home goal, and knocking off the hanging tetra in the right pocket. Other than that there was very little autonomous; most teams tried to knock down a hanging tetra. I don't think anyone used the camera, but I hope someone does, I'd like to see it work.

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I think we were the only team there using the camera. Our programmer is awesome, and by the end of the regional we were able to find the tetra, get to it, and pick it up. The goal for Waterloo is to be capping.

As for the regional itself, it was amazing. A great group of teams, and many exciting matches. Being one of 2 Canadian teams was awesome, and Pittsburgh is such a pretty city. (really hilly, but awesome none the less)

Thanks a bunch to 379 for picking us for the finals, we put up one heck of a fight, and to 1185 for rounding out the alliance and putting forth some awesome defence.

Hope to see you all in Atlanta! (We still have to qualify, two more regionals :))

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The wheels are not omni wheels. Omni wheels have other small wheels that are perpendicular to the main wheel which helps a great deal by decreasing the friction. In fact omni wheels, unless mounted correctly, cannot do what we do, no matter how well hey are designed.

Our wheels are called the mechanum wheel. This wheel allows lateral movement by spinning the wheels in opposite directions. Yes these wheels were designed to do that. The mechanum wheel is very different then an omni wheel. An omni wheel it is easy to be pushed laterally, while the mechanum wheel fixes this problem. When we move laterally our front wheels move forward and our back wheels move backward, or vice versa, causing the conical shaped rollers to give way and that is how we slide back and forth.

You and your mentor are correct. We spin our wheels to go laterally and they were designed to do that.

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hey. its the other way around. WE coundn't have made it without you guys.
team # 395 2 Train Robotics (the driver)

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Wow...

after an 11 hour drive to the comp, and an 11 hour trip back home again...wow...

Pittsburgh, what an amazing place...gauranteed my hotel was only like 10 miles away, it took half an hour to get there! traffic is horrid, but i learned to adjust. As a ref for this event, i am honored to have been able to participate. I know there where a few controversial calls all weekend, and please do not start a war about them, but as a group we made the calls that we deemed appropriate. I would like to extend a gracious hand to all the teams in the winning alliance, you guys deserved it. moe, maximus, and 808, you guys played a hard fought battle, and i extend my hand to you in saying nice job.

well, thats about all i have to say, hope to see more of y'all in the offseason.