Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Doug,

Thanks for the response about the IR remote and how it works. I wonder if all remotes work that same way?? Should we be recommending a certain one that works a certain way, or will everyones code work with any IR remote??

Something else to consider, the robo-coach may want to delay pushing the button - long enough to be sure the alliance partners have gotten past the over pass, or at least are not going to be in your way to knock the ball off.

If the autonomous program is used without the IR, then simply build in a delay in the autonomous to simulate waiting a few seconds.

With the idea that everyone is going to move, now we must consider who goes first, second, third - in order to make sure we don't drive into each others way. I don't expect everyone to move at the same rate or even straight.

I've asked our guys to build a delay into our code that will allow the speed bots to go first - then we'll go (assuming we have the responsibility of knocking our ball off our overpass).

If we aren't responsible for knocking the ball down, we will simply let the autonomous code "go straight , turn left code run without an IR signal needed.

Mike

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Wayne, you are on. See you at natonals.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Last reminder before week one - Please make sure EVERY team has the means and the opportunity to participate in hybrid mode. If you help teams and have a story to share, or if EVERY team at your regional had a hybrid, spread the good news in this thread.

If you don't help other teams and there are teams that don't have a hybrid mode, I'm coming to the houses of the Chairmans and #1 seeded teams in the middle of the night and smacking them around.:D

Plus, remember to watch FIRSTruth for results and analysis of Week 1 regionals. (Plus catch up on all of the episodes you missed during build season.)

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

So folks, How's the No Robot Left Behind Challenge going?
Any reports after week 1, day 1??

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Well there are alot of stationary robots at Fingerlakes, ours included. The hybrid board was finally wired up to run on Friday- and there is only 1 'test' area to practice in- and you're given 5 minutes and back to the end of the line. You're not even allowed to 'queue' your name up unless you park your robot infront of the area. With matches every 20-40 minutes it's been impossible for us to get out and see just how tight our turns are.

And as you know, no untested code should ever go out on the floor- it's not safe.

So.... our robot is going to be left behind... but it'll just crawl forward and clear the first line... assuming we're not struck ;)

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

My team was unable to get hybrd mode workin, we were hoping to be able to knock the ball off the overpass buy we coulnt. My question is how would my team be able to score points in hybrid by crossing lane markers. my team uses easyC so how would we program our bot to drive straight and turn left drive straight and turn left?

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

I fount it weird how so many teams just didn't use the IR board at FLR, I mean we where one of the few teams that used it. Most just used dead reckoning. We had 3 hybrid modes when a lot of teams had none. All that we did was have one student and mentor work on it the whole 6 weeks. Thankfully we won and award for our hybrid modes at FLR. If anyone has any questions about the IR board or Hybrid mode let me know and I'll find someone on the team to help ya out.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

We have easyc and were able to cross 5 lines in hybrid mode.

BUT, we have encoders and gyro and a pretty sophisticated way point software we developed over the weeks. All that would be too hard for you to start now, but with easyc you can quickly develop the ability to cross two lines for 8 points.

First of all about your robot. What sensors do you have? Do you have wheel encoders or fear counter to tell how far you have gone? Do you have the gyro onboard?

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

well we have no sensors what-so-ever on our robot (except the IR board to use as a kill switch in auto) and we managed to dead reckon a 5 line auto, (4 lines was more consitent) as long as no robots blocked us. If anyone needs a hybrid at GTR stop by our pit, we can get you to cross at least the first line no problems what-so-ever.

and hopefully we have the ability to knock down the ball at GTR as well.

Good luck with this challenge, and to report, most robots in Waterloo moved in hybrid, whether it was for points or not!!

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Wow that is great doing this with no sensors. We managed to cross 4-5 lines 4-5 times at Florida, but then started having mysterious issues with the robot at the start do a fast left turn.

We got our data logger going and that will help us figure out what is going wrong with those issues.

So on your hybrid mode, did you doing timing to know when to turn. What kind of turns do you do, stop then do a 90 degree turn, or start turn at end of going straight?

I think it is amazing a robot can go that far without some sort of feedback.

This weekend we plan on start knocking down balls. We did it in practice but the mysterious problems killed the next step of knocking down balls.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Well, 1565's linkage drive train (search it on CD, theres pics) would definitely help, as there should be no error in turning differences, as it never really turns.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

yep that would be why it works so well!

We just tell it to drive for x seconds foreward (I think its like 4.1 secs or something like that) then switch the linkage and drive x seconds left, switch, x seconds back, switch, etc etc. We managed 5 lines once, and 4 lines at least twice, but the rest of the time robots were in the way and we usually got three and crashed into someone. That's what we get for no sensors eh?? hahaha!

I'm quite proud that we managed that without any encoders and gyros and what-not. (We couldn't get encoders or we would of had them, they make things easy lol :D)

PS. 1075guy, I'll have to meet you in person at GTR you always seem ot pop up when talking about our drive system lol.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

Incorporating sensors isn't hard I think. It's just as easy (to me) as incorporating a timer and just takes a few extra lines of code. The hardest part is the mounting of the sensor.

Our auton. really is mostly autonomous. We set states using dipswitches on the bot to tell it what "lane" it is in when we place it. The gyro and transmission encoder take over from there. The robocoach has 1 main button he presses and that's the "1 second pause" button. 2 other buttons are for slight angle adjustments left/right if we're ever in position to knock our ball off or are in danger of knocking the opponent's ball off.

We've easily crossed 3 lines twice and should have crossed the last line. When asked why we didn't make the final turn, the lead programmer stated "I didn't think we'd ever get that far". Ha! In Philly our robocoach will be going around and is tasked with assisting other teams with their IR boards and at least getting them to slowly drive forward over the first line.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

lol. What can I say, I really like it. I was there at Waterloo with the team. And you can blame me for 1246 getting in your way in the last qualification match we played. I noticed your auton goes a bit too far forward, and would hit a robot that didnt move in the inside lane. I figured sacrificing their 1 line to limit you guys to 2 instead of 5 was a good tradeoff.

Re: Hybrid Challenge-No Robot Left Behind
 

bwahaha!! I knew that was planned..

no matter, you my friend made us tweak the time some more, so it actually reaches the 5th line and scores its points

Thanks :D