Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Now that Pittsburgh is over (Congrats to the winning alliance!), I'd like to see what all of us thought. What bots did best? What type of bots seemed to be most desirable as an alliance partner? Who was the best scorer? Who was the best ramp? Who was the best Hybrid? Did hybrids do better than scorers or ramps at either of those specialized tasks, or was a specialized robot definately the way to go? How was the venue food?;) How'd you feel about the rookie advantage?


Whatever you want to say... Here's the place to say it!

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

The results page shows that team 1640 had to play in back-to-back matches Friday morning. Is that right?

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Can someone post the elimination bracket?

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

You mean this: http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/eve...chresults.html ?

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Here they are.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

It was Ok. The food sucked. The Floor around the Pit sucked!! Alot of people probably saw me taping down the floor on Friday morning. 306...Sorry for using up all of your duct tape

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

No problem :) It was better used keeping people from tripping than sitting in our toolbox.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I think 1038 was the best scoring 'bot. There were only a few who could consistently score anywhere but the bottom row. They could also score in autonomous.

378 had the best ramp or lifting design. They were in 30th place after the qualifications because of some real fluke events. They lost two matches because a string from one bot was touching the ground, and the other a drive chain from a 'bot was touching the ground. They lifted us through the quarters and the semis. The two matches of the six we didn't get 60 were both our fault. Once was a slipping transmission and the other we were on our back like a turtle in the sun.

1629 and 128 also had very consistent designs. They finished the qualifications 21st and 26th respectfully. Da Bears also had a great ramp design they rode to the championship.

We got up all of the ramps we played with. The one that gave us the most difficulty was CIA's. Their angle up the ramp was the steepest and we missed it once.

If you look at the rankings at the end of the qualifications for Pittsburgh, the strong defensive 'bots and rookies held most of the top spots.

Greg
Mentor
Team 1249
The RoboRats

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I want to thank you (and anyone else who did that) many times over...the floor was quite rough, and pulling our big, hefty cart around every match was tough, it got caught frequently. We had a few twisted ankles, but nothing serious.

Pittsburgh was fun, although it would have been more fun for us personally if we'd had a bit more variety in alliance partners. While we didn't play the same teams again and again the way it was the first week, it was still a bit annoying by Saturday morning.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

375 struck me as the best score bot. They got 7 in a row twice, and would have had 8 the second time if not for a problem in autonomous and some good defence on the other alliance. Other that them, 1038 was great.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

My team didn't do so hot. Even though we placed 6th overall. It is definately better than last year when we were in dead last. Our alliance was pretty strong too, but not strong enough. My team, (1708), just played defense. We did very well at it, but I think it would've been so much better if they just TRIED or attempted to use what we had, which was the suction, which eventually turned into a hook...ARGHH!! Don't think we've been beaten yet though!! I'll be engineering this robot next year, and it'll be soo much better, believe me!! =]

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

1038 was my favorite, by far!!:D

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Did anyone else see 48's flying flip-over crash in practice matches? I was standing right by that corner of the field, but I thought it was one of the best/worst robot-accidents I've ever see. I'm glad nothing was damaged too much though!

Good robots? I did like 1038 a lot. I thought 2010 was an awesome rookie bot. That team also had great strategy... I was watching the human player switching between spoilers and ringers deciding which ine would benefit their alliance more.

306 had an impressive looking ramp too. So many great robots!

Pittsburgh was so much fun, I'm already looking forward to next year.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I saw it flip, it was a great one. Hahaha =P

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I certainly saw it! 1038 recorded it and will post video later, I believe. Nothing was damaged at all - just a flag holder and a battery terminal connection that needed popped back into place.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I had so much fun at Pittsburgh! I cannot wait until next year, I wish that the regional lasted longer! Our robot team 1708 we really had a tough time because we could not use the suction cup did not work which made me sad. Overall we did really well though we made sixth place overall which is really good considering that this is only our 3rd year competiting:D

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Our wonderful camera-person filming all of our matches got it.
On that video... there will be a raw, and there has been talk of a slow-mo version, with some editing and a "NOOOOOOOOOO", with some faces we got.

What was amazing was how quickly 48 got their bot back up and running, WITH their ramps and bumpers :3
But yeah, their treads kicked them up onto a tube, and then they continued forward onto our bot, and did a barrel roll.
It was scary :3

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

It was like a movie stunt. Awesome. I will be waiting for a link.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

DO A BARREL ROLL!
But seriously, how do I shot web?
/end of random/

Absolutely awesome how fast you guys recovered! I don't mean to be rude, but that is my favorite robot wreck!

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Go ahead and laugh it up - I enjoyed it myself.

That was our driver's very first match against live competition with that robot, ever. Considering how well he acclimated himself to driving by the end of the competition, I can forgive Johnny for sending the bot flying his first time out. At least he knows how to entertain!

Welded square tubing may be heavy as heck, but it has its advantages.

And we added a velcro battery strap following this outing. That was one of those things on the very extensive list o' junk to do on Thursday that we hadn't gotten to yet.....

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I remember, before the match, you guys decided to play "light defense", because the bumpers weren't on. Then, we were shocked (I was behind the human player station), when you guys flipped like 5 seconds into the teleoperated period.. It was a pretty epic maneuver, if you ask me :3

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I gotta say, of the scoring robots 375 was one of the best - especially in auton. They only missed like 3 in the whole competition, including practice. We were 4 for 6 in practice and around 2 for 14 in competition - we think the floor was biasing the robot causing the problem. We found we were better on the blue side in auton and went left on the red side, a little mad programming on Friday PM to give a little right bias did not appear to help much.

Concerning the aerobatics of team 48, you gotta love a team who can flip thier naked bot at top speed and come back to make it to the finals - 48 Rocks! The rolls will be available later on video....:)

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Okay, I just thought about a huge issue at the regional, though I'm not sure I should be opening this particular can of worms...


Did anyone else notice that there was not a real robot inspection going on? I have to admit, our inspector was a very nice volunteer, but she had been informed that she was to do robot inspections the night before Thursday. Literally, as long as our robot fit size and weight, hadn't been "grounded to the frame" and lacked "sharp things" (All of which were zip-ties), we were passed. Passed with a sticker, but no signature, which worried me throughout the regional. No one was even inspected for the elimination matches.

Literally, had we wanted to, we could've run the entire regional at 120psi with no pressure switch, used aluminum foil for wire and connections, and taped the entirety of our robot together with duct tape- and still been passed. At Pittsburgh in the past, we had been nearly failed before for not using a solder splice instead of a solderless butt connector that an inspector felt was necessary. Overkill, but better than nothing at all. I was just worried for the sake of other teams. Our robot was completely correct and within specifications, but we could've easily made a small electrical error that could become a huge problem.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I did wonder a bit when our robot passed quite that quickly; I left the pit when the robot did, and it was back before me. I had thought they usually took longer, but since I didn't actually go through the inspection with the robot this year I don't know for sure how thorough ours was.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Well, our robot was inspected for wiring, for a proper pneumatic system and all of the other stuff we typically found in the past few years. Perhaps it varied from inspector to inspector? Ours seemed to know what he was doing and was quite nice. It took a total of 25 or so minutes in two different sessions. Plus the time to weigh and "box" the robot.

As for the 48 roll, it was definitely highlight worthy. The thing that came to mind for me (something you have to be a bit older to remember) was the opening of the old "Wide World of Sports." Those in their mid 30s and older will know what I am talking about.:)

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Yeah, my team noticed this too... We found a few things that should have prevented us from passing inspection right afterwards (and fixed them). This is a pretty big issue...

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Our robot was only put in the box and on the scales. A quick look over and i got the sticker. No paperwork to sign or anything. I did wonder if i was complete and ask if i needed it to come back for the check list inspection. The man said i passed. I now must go to Palmetta for inspection wondering if everything is right.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Yeah, the problem with Pittsburgh was is we didn't have a scoring table person. So our "Lead Inspector" became the scorekeeper because we figured that all the inspections would have been done on Thursday and could be handed by the other Inspectors.

There were a lot of issues that were found as we were checking things on the field during matches... and we couldn't even check the robot classifications because they didn't number the robots with what class they were for the first set of matches!

Our FTA (cause we didn't have a field supervisor) couldn't find anything that said we had to reinspect the robots for the elims on Saturday, and we didn't feel they would have time (nor would a bunch of the rookie team robots pass) if we did a proper inspection for the elims. It didn't turn out to be an issue.

Granted, Pittsburgh was very low on Volunteers this year, so I would say we did the best with what we could.