Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Thank you to Ken and Brad and all the Battle Cry support staff that put on a great event. This is my favorite robot event to judge because everyone looks so happy - all the time. My husband and I got to talk to so many teams and really had a great date at Battle Cry.

For those who studied for the AP exams - you made the right, tough, decision. If you missed Battle cry - just wait for college. There are so many robot and car competitions - your participation is just begining.

Marie

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

126 & company had me worried after that tie. We were broken, and that alliance was playing awesome. Little nervous going into that 3rd match. Loved playing with and against you this weekend 126. 121 and 126 have the friendliest rivalry in FIRST. Its amazing.

Thanks to our great partners 40 and 1474. With an average match score of 117 (and a scare of having to drive with only 3 motors), there was never a dull moment on our alliance.

40 is a great team to ally with. They are very competitive and always there to help. It's easy working with a team that has the same "mindset" as your team. We are happy to work with 40 to win our second Battlecry allied with them, and our fourth overall.

Congratulations to all the teams that made Battlecry a great two day event. We will see most of you at Beantown Blitz in a few weeks.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

After dealing with a season of FIRST, Battlecry reminds me why I stick around. Thanks, WPI.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

I want to thank all the coaches that I annoyed at WPI with my iPod and headset mic. (Tim from 126 , Dan from 40 , Brandon from 125, Matt from 176 , Chris and Eric from 195)
Unfortunately, I only got 5 clean recordings (2 of myself, 2 of Tim and Matt) from everything I recorded. The headset mic stopped working and I had about a gigabyte of silence.
I'm waiting on the video from Battlecry and approval of said coaches to put out some more 'inside the driver's station' videos.
Thanks again guys.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Are there any videos yet? I had a blast @ battlecry. I gained some valuable experience driving(Thanks Tim!) in our qualifying matches(#18, 26, 34) and I would just like to see how I did I know with the alliances we were with i went 2-1 with them. Any info of where they are or when then are up would be great.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

While everyone is waiting on video, here are a few to hold you over.
I secured my digital camera to the robot and took some robo-cam videos. There are two from the eighth finals and one from the quarters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A71KAt3pPKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRr5905tYB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoDesDJ29fw

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Thanks, Jeff, that gives a very different perspective to the game for us spectators!

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Thanks all for a great time and great competition. I would especially like to thank 126 and 1519 for a being such great partners. Hope to see everyone again next year.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Heres some picture I took. Enjoy.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Not trying to be mean, but 190 was pretty terrible. Way too overcomplicated. To go from world champs to bad, gotta be a downer.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

I thought it was an innovative solution to the game problem. It may or may not have been effective, but it showed some creativity. It caught my attention anyway.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

It may not have worked well, but that is not the point. Whenever my team goes to a competition, I gauge our success based almost solely on how many "oh wows" we get. I'm sure this generated many. It's quite fun being different mostly for the sake of being different.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

Most teams aim to win and be competitive. Team 190 puts innovation and inspiration as our highest goal - above being competitive.

As such, this past season has been anything but a "downer". ;)

If you ever get a chance, check out 190's 2008 robot up close. Look at the infinite-turn, custom-designed slip ring, for powering three motors on the elevator. (As far as we have been able to research, there has never been an infinite-turn turret in FIRST with powered motors and sensors on the turret). Look at the minimalist sucker for picking up the trackball. Look at the "rPOD", a secondary drivetrain which allowed the robot to drive sideways.

Talk to the students on the team; they can happily explain to you everything about their robot.

Then go back and study more of Team 190's robots from season's past, and the awards we've won. Our record perfectly reflects back on our main goals; our technical and inspiration awards far outnumber our robot performance awards. ;)

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

The one thing with the design process is everybody goes into the season blind with no real idea how the game is played out outside of a cutesy animation and a stern set of rules.
We always find out is the game is often played differently from what is shown on the game animation as teams figure out strategies and "nooks and crannies" in the rules that they can exploit.
I think 190 tried to see if they could try this strategy and it just didn't work out for them. It happens to everyone.

Re: BattleCry@WPI 9
 

As a former member of 190, I can attest to this. While winning may be fun, when you're an engineer and you study it in every class and are just itching to get some real world experience with it, why not go nuts on a robot?

While I may be a huge fan of simplicity, especially in FIRST as I like keeping pit stops as short as possible, over-designing does have its merits. You learn a lot through the process, it's a good chance that everyone on the team will be exposed to atleast something new, and you'll get a lot of exposure. Team 190, year in and year out, consistently designs and implements some of the best and most innovative design concepts in this program. Between the slip ring this year, CVT's in 2002, the wonder wheels in 2001, you can't argue it.

Plus, by going in such a drastic direction as they did this year, they were playing a game. If the ruling of the GDC went one way, they could have had the greatest design and won every match. However, it went the other way and they had a robot that loved penalties as much as my car loves premium gas. It's a gamble to play that aggressively, and they know that. However, they probably had more fun in 6 weeks than most of us did.

And I'm not a betting man, but I'm pretty sure that they'll do something just as ridiculous next year...