Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

Both of those are penalties according to the manual. They add to the challenge.

I saw, via webcast, one poor PS at a certain event throw a Super Cell within 20 seconds after auto ended, and I'm not sure there was an empty cell there either. There was a penalty (thanks to whoever put the display together, we know who scored what and which alliance has a penalty).

Folks, the PS's need to know the rules too. The "silly" part is that these guys/gals don't know/don't remember the rules after 6 weeks +1 week, and they're out on the field breaking rules. This should not be the case. If you're a PS in upcoming events, do yourself a favor and read Section 7 again, paying close attention to the penalties you can draw.

Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

Agreed, coach the payload specialist, and make sure they understand. The silly part could be because the refs don't need to pay as much attention to the bots, and can concentrate on the players a little more:confused:

Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

I saw several matches heavily upset thanks to penalties. In one match, 30 points of penalty was assessed thanks to putting three empty cells into play OVER, instead of THROUGH. Not going to lie, it was a bummer. One of the teams was a struggling rookie I had been helping, and they had just finally gotten things to go right for once. It was sad seeing them go from elated, they had done so well and lead by 20 points... to realizing they had just lost 30 points from penalties.

Yes, know the rules, there's no sense in losing points for the simple things like that.

Human players are definitely a big deal at the OKC regional.

The best shooters are up close and personal; not incredibly fast, but extremely persistent, and reliable.

I don't know what caused the differences, practice, design, or traction control, but there have been some robots that get around the field with ease, while a lot struggle to get around.

There were significant delays at the OKC regional, there were some sort of difficulties with the field equipment (controls, software) and it took them a couple of hours to get worked out. They hustled though and pretty well got things back on schedule. I was pretty impressed with their recovery; they did an excellent job.

Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

Payload specialist often times do a majority of the work in matches.

MOVE IN AUTONOMOUS!

All the balls go to the sides. Drive there to pick up balls.

Traction Control helps. A lot.

Dumpers > Shooters. Unless you're 1114.

MWR is fun to watch. 71 and 1625 have rocking Dumpers.

One interesting thing I noticed is a triangle shaped bot at MWR that does not satisfy bumper rules. Anyone at MWR care to tell us how it passed inspection?

Can't wait to watch the elim's tomorrow!

Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

I don't know about at the other regionals, but I think that the biggest reason why people don't have auto programs is because of how the autonomous independent.vi is run; it runs once. The watchdog needs to be fed in a loop or using the delay and feed. If you find someone without an auto, check to see if it's just that their watchdog died and, please, do help them.

Re: Observations First Day of Matches
 

Easiest route: delete the watchdog.

I know I'm gonna get s about it but it might be the best route;)

The sys watchdog (not possible to disable) takes care of the important stuff like ensuring communication to the ds. The user one is optional.


watchdog overview
-jonathan