Re: Midwest Regional
 

Who watched that? That was a really good regional!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I watched the matches on SOAP and the second set of semis through the finals live. I was testing a scout sheet. The conclusions are...interesting.:cool: (Other than that it works well for predictions...and for figuring out who you want to pick.)

Re: Midwest Regional
 

i have, it was awesome!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Why do you lose respect for them. This angers me because if you were in the same position, you would do the same thing. Did you ever stop and think that they were picking them because they wanted them as an alliance partner, and not just to break up a powerful alliance?? Even if that was their only reason, they earned the #1 seed and the first pick, they should do whatever is best for their team. It really bothers me. People keep bringing up 1732 from Cruie last year. People say they didnt deserve it, but most of them didnt even see their robot in action. I talk to some people that are on that team, and I watched their robot for most of their matches. They were one of the better scoring robots I saw last year, but they needed some help from an alliance member to keep defenders away from them. Does it mean they are a bad robot if they need help from an alliance partner? People also talk about their choices in Atlanta last year What is wrong with what they did? Beachbots and 1114 were clearly the best teams there, so should they pick any team that wasnt the best choice? I dont care if you dont think the #1 seed deserves to be there. You can say "They just got carried by other teams". If that happens, So What? They didnt create the algorithm, its not their fault they were with good teams. I'm sure if you were that team, you wouldnt want to hear others saying you dont deserve it, and you wouldnt say you got carried. Whoever is the #1 seed deserves it. Remember, the #1 seed doesnt mean anything about the best robots. In my opinion the #1 seed usually means that robot was one of the best at working with another team and contributing to an alliance. That is how I feel. Nawaid, when I say you I am talking to anyone in general, not just you in particular. Im not meaning to rant, but this is just something that really bothers me. You wouldnt want your grandma to hear you bashing anothers accomplishments would you?
Joey

Re: Midwest Regional
 

What you say is 100% true.

My team has been in situations like you describe in Curie last year.

My take is it's a 100% valid strategy. If you know that other people consider you a weaker team, and you have the first pick, you have to do what's best for you.

What's best for you would be one of two things--the "powerhouse" teams accepting your invitation, and thus making your alliance better, or the powerhouse declining your invitation, and denying them the ability to be picked by another powerhouse, thus weakening all your opponents.

It's been done to us, and if I were in the position of the team executing this strategy, I'd absolutely do it as well. It's all part of the game.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

They have identical jerseys and identical robots. I'm not sure what the story behind their collaboration is.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Woohoo, i picked the champs!
I had a feeling they were gonna take it.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Way to go McKenzie! Great way to represent Indianapolis! We are proud of you.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Thanks to a few close calls our team had to stay around longer (2433 @ seed 9).

Congrats to team 1024 (The literally smoking robot). Their autonomous mode can score up to 20 points. (Talking about getting a head start)

The robot was smoking after it was placed on the field during semi-final. The cause is unknown. (Our team was summoned to standby because of this.)

Wildstang had to call a timeout to help get one of the other robots working within their alliance (We were called to standby for the final match).

There was a 3 vs 1 match because of two reasons.
1. A competing team pulled their robot from the field 10 seconds before play. They should have stopped and brought in the standby team. Would have scored more points instead of being dominated.
2. A key robot to the team was on its side.

Killer Bee's (Team 33) robot did a great job. Unfortunately it fell hard on its side in the beginning of its elimination match crippling the alliance's chance of scoring. This is the look on their faces when it fell :eek:

1114 has a unique method of cooling the motors / actuators for the arms. Too bad I didn't grab a photo of their cooling process: Blowing on the motor when they are not competing. Their preparation process before the match was perfect. They insured nothing would come lose and tested the motors and arm before the match.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

1114 is a team you can look at at any angle and find a perfect model for your own team. I'd suggest everyone take a peak, if you haven't already, and find out what they're doing right. Year in and year out, they are amazing.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Programmer/Driver here...

I am SOOOO TIRED but I couldn't help but see if anybody was saying anything on CD. Aparently so!

Thank you for all of your kind complements. I'm sure I speak for our entire team when I say we've worked very hard this year to put forth a good bot.

Still can't believe that shooting mechanism came from this prototype...

65_Xero_Huskie: Great prediction. Who would have thought? :D However, you're pick on closest match wasn't quite right. I don't know what alliance # they were, but the bomb squad alliance REALLY gave us a run for our money!

IndySam: Thanks for your kind complements.

Ninja: To clear up some smoke on the smoke, the smoke actually came from one of our ultrasonic sensors. Strangely enough, these sensors keep the robot from ramming (the robot decelerates (note decelerate not decrease power) just before a collision to keep from getting carded). So, are they safety sensors or un-safety sensors? :ahh:

Our gyro now has gunk all over it and I think the fire (yes there wasn't just smoke) killed one of our encoder cables (hence the robot drifting into the wall in the final match). So, we're bringing a spare gyro and a spiffy new encoder cable to boilmaker and RALFF should be all ready to drive again.

Some things are lucky like this, but I didnt even realized who's timeout we were on while fixing the wiring fault. Turns out WildStang called their timeout to fix one of their robots same time ours decided to start smoking all of a sudden. If you hadn't called the timeout... things may have been VERY different.................. hmm.

Also, one last note. Remember the team numbers for our alliance? Look what's odd about them...

1+1+1+4 = 7
1+0+2+4 = 7
2+0+4+1 = 7

A match made in heaven? Perhaps. :ahh:

1024 is updating their travel schedule to include the Championship Event in Atlanta. 1114: I know we'll see you there. 2041: Don't remember if you're going or not, but hope you are!

Thanks guys! See you all at Boilermaker next!

-q

p.s. Any feedback on the speedometer/debug display?

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Yah, it looked cool, but have you ever told us what it does? I saw a bunch of numbers without much of an idea of what they were.

And I have to add to everyone else that has already mentioned this, your auto is amazing!!!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Thank you! Sorry it had a little problem at the end there after the fire.

Also, we figured out what one of our problems was with the display being so, well, hard to read (getting dim quickly). Our main battery cable was barely hanging on... so whenever we gunned it (most the time) the battery voltage was very low. 1024 should be a little quicker at Boilermaker.

The display is currently set to display ft/sec speed in competition mode (when in debug mode it can display a number of things from encoder counts to gyro angles). It reads out in fixed-point hundreths of a ft/sec. Example: "12.75" on display means the robot's forward velocity is 12.75ft/sec. If you see all the decimal points turn on (ex 1.2.7.5.), this means the robot is going backwards at the indicated speed.

-q

Re: Midwest Regional
 

That is really cool! You just added another item to my potential offseason project list.

Even to just use it as a debug screen and not even have it on the 'bot for competition seems like it would be very helpful when programming auto.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

1+5+0+1 = 7 :ahh: WOW, what a coincidence
See you guys at BMR
You guys rock!!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Great work Q and the rest of 1024... also congrats to 1114 & 2041... the triple 7 alliance :)

Re: Midwest Regional
 

We (1675) had to pull out of the match at the last second because a battery lead came loose from the RA Distribution Block somewhere between our pit (where everything was tested and checked out fine) and placing it on the field. The crew would not grant us a time out to repair it, so we pulled off the field to do so (in hindsight, leaving the bot on the field would have at least caused a bit of a bottle neck in that corner and possibly slowed down 1114 and 1024, but it was fun to see such a high score). There was nothing wrong with our bot so there was no reason to call in a replacement. Our defense took out 1114 in qualifying before, so there's no way we were going to give it a shot in the second match. Had our alliance had two full matches against them, I think we could have made it a pretty close second match, but the best alliance definitely took home the gold. Congrats to 1114, 1024, and 2041!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

that was us 1625,16,648 who took the timeout then, we were trying to get chain back on one of 648's swerve modules.

so in turn.. your welcome? lol

Re: Midwest Regional
 

WOW...I went away to university and missed all you guys on CD for a few years, feels great to be back!

Having some free time this year, I came back to this great competition re-assuming my role of Veteran Mechanical Mentor @ 843. This was a special task this year, as 843 fostered rookie team 2386 in our neighbouring city Burlington ON. (as they had minimal resources, and only 6 students)

The end result was a beautiful collaboration, we collectively designed the robots, 843 hosting the machining and welding opportunities. While an inspiring rookie student from 2386 spearheaded an impressive autonomous program for both teams (see match #40)

2386 finished day 1 ranked #1! We all had a blast and a big thanks to all of the teams who made for a great challenge @ Midwest.

I hope this explains the curosity below:
"843 & 2386 have similar jersey's"...
We were pleased to run the sister teams on the same alliance in the elimination rounds, some rookie preparation errors caused us some grief in the semi's...so watch out for the well oiled twins @ GTA regional!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Soooooo how about the Canadian presence @ Midwest...


3 CDN teams, all three in the semi's...1114 the talk & Champ of the regional!
you southern brothers better watch out!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I would like to thank the planning committee, volunteer staff, and teams at the Midwest Regional for making it an all-around great event. It was the most fun I've ever had at our first event of the season, and the level of the talent on hand around us was unsurpassed.

The Team Social at Adler Planetarium was outstanding - good food and great presentation of all the different programs. The backdrop of the nighttime Chicago skyline was breathtaking.

Thank you to Teams 33 and 2039 for agreeing to be our alliance partners. What was unfortunately a too short experience was also very sweet.

Congrats to all award and event winners. A special shout out to our Buckeye brethren on Team 1038 for earning the Engineering Inspiration Award!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

see you guys at GTR

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I have to say congrats to 1114, 1024, and 2041! You guys did an outstanding job in the finals. I had lot's of people ask who I was going to cheer for 111 or 2041 the team my son mentors. I always cheer for both alliances in the finals so it wasn't hard, but it took a lot out of me jumping around and cheering for everything. Congratulations to all the teams who received awards especially Beatty on their Chairman's Award.
My biggest congrats goes out to Ed O'Conner on the St. Pat's Team 101, for regional Woodie Flowers. I have known Ed for a long time, (must be about 12 years now) and it was a honor to be present to congratulate him on Friday night. He is truely an inspiration to his students and a great asset to First.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I also want to add in congratulations to Team #71 for winning the Regional Chairman's Award, Ed O'Conner for the WFA (as a fellow nominee, you are an inspiration to us all) , the event champions, teams 1114, 1024 and 2041 - you all did an outstanding job competing!
All of the teams attending did a great job as well. I was working on the field reset crew all weekend and even through our learning times, all drive teams were understanding and professional with our crew.

The rest of the volunteer crew was excellent as well. The referees did a great job of making consistant calls to keep the game fair for everyone. Watching every match from their perspective showed me how thorough the refs were and how much of a challenge they have this year. They have the toughest jobs at the event. Thank them when you interact with them and mean it. Even if you disagree, even if the call costs you few points, or a win, or a championship, right or wrong - for without all of the volunteers, our robots would be sitting in crates in a warehouse for a couple of months.
It is something that I like to do in every event I attend, whether it is one of my Ironman triathlons, or a robotics event. I will do so with more enthusiasm now that I have been on "the other side."
It really lived up to my expectations of the fantastic event everyone said it would be.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I also want to congratulate everyone that won awards as Al mentioned. I wish Team Hammond best of luck with Chairman's at Atlanta - let us know if we can help you prepare for your interview. The fantastic alliance of 1114, 1024, 2041 was really hard to beat - you guys were awesome.

It never feels good to lose in the finals; but I hope my team and alliance partners can understand why I never felt better after losing in the finals. Ambivalence may best describe my feelings towards who I wanted to win.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

I just uploaded a couple hundred photos here. They're somewhat 1114-centric, but there are photos of every single robot at Midwest since I was doing double-duty as a scout. PM me if you'd like a higher-resolution version of any particular shot.

Re: Midwest Regional
 

i love all the closeups of the drivetrain i designed lol

Re: Midwest Regional
 

What an amazing weekend! The Midwest Regional produced some of the most exciting matches that Team 1114 has ever been a part of. The atmosphere was electric during the elimination rounds.

A huge thanks goes out to our awesome alliance partners, Teams 1024 and 2041. These were two of the most under rated teams at the regional, and we were honoured to play on the same alliance as them. The semi-final series against 1625, 16 and 648 was an epic battle. When I saw the smoke emerge from the 1024 machine, I really thought we were done. It took some quick work from all three teams to emerge from the brink of disaster.

Congratulations to 111, 1243 and 1504 for giving us a good run in the finals. I could see all three of these teams getting some gold before this season is done.

Finally a special congratulation to Team 71. That Chairman's Award is absolutely deserved. We've looked to your team as role models since the beginning. There's no team I'd rather see win the big award in Atlanta.

Thanks to everyone who made the event a blast!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Congratulations to 1114, 1024 & 2041 - you guys were great it was a well earned WIN!! I'm sure the hybrid lap speed and control of 1024 & the simply awesome all-around performance of the 1114 machine will be talked about for a long time to come. National Competitors- WATCH-OUT!!

Should we really be surprised that we are starting to see these Father-vs-Son combinations in the Elims? I would have to say it's probably something along the lines of one of the greatest pay-backs a Father could ever experience to see their Son meet and as we saw EXCEED what they've been able to do!! Certainly signs of more good things to come I'm sure. :) So, congratulations Raul & Al!!

A BIG Thanks to 111 for picking us, and for 1504 for being great partners it was a lot of fun and we were proud to have been with you all!! We're looking foward to seeing you guys in West Michigan where we hope things turn out even better once we get the small bugs out and the reliability where it needs to be!

BTW: Our mascot had a great time wearing the Dragon suit, tie-dye, and Penguin head!!

Re: Midwest Regional
 

Team 2358 would like to thank you crazy Canadians for picking us for the rookie alliance. We did well guys. we are glad to have worked with you. We figured it must have been an omen when our Bear mascot was wearing a hockey jersey :)

we would also like to thank the the teams that awarded us their personal "rookie of the year awards." These really meant a lot to us and are what we hold dear after competition. So thank you team 71 and 1625 for those, they really mean a lot. (there was one more but as of right now i do not remember who awarded it, so if you did award it, post here. sorry about that, we appreciate yours equally as the others)

finally we would like to thank teams 111 & 1024, who, with our help, during the early morning saturday, were able to set a world record score (112). although this record would later be broken, it was one of our finest achievements during the regional.

we would also like to congradulate those teams who won and will be moving on to nationals. our wishes of luck goes with you. we hope a midwest bot wins big in georgia.

as for our us, we did very well. 13th out of 42 teams during qualifying, picked fourth during alliance picks. and ended in the semi-finals. not bad for a team whos never done this before :)

see you guys and gals next year :))

Re: Midwest Regional
 

We would like to thank team 111 for picking us, and both 111 and 1243 for being great alliance partners! I seem to remember now why I don't enjoy week 1, everything breaks!!!

Congratulations to 1114, 1024 and 2041! What a fun final that was!

Congratulations also to 71. I love to see teams whom I respect so much winning awards like Chairmans! From day 1 on HOT, the phrase that was constantly pounded into my head was "what would Beatty do"?

To all of the other teams at the competition, congratulations to you too. I was so impressed by the caliber of team performance demonstrated at MWR, nothing near what I had expected. I look forward to seeing all of the teams that can make it to Atlanta!