That poor robot!
 

I was recently watching old game animations, and I noticed something funny. In all the games with balls (2004, 2006, 2008) when the voice over says "Robots must be built robustly..." and then it shows a game piece (or several) dropping on the same robot every year, the low blue one that looks like a snowplow. Why is that? I feel kind of bad for that robot now, it's always in the wrong place in the wrong time. Your thoughts?

BTW, who does the voice overs for those animations?

Re: That poor robot!
 

so do i this year i think that robot should be given a break. It would be funny if next year the robot would seek revenge for getting destroyed so often.:yikes:

Matthew Simpson
Team 75 Leadership/leadership

Re: That poor robot!
 

Ha, I feel worse about Wall-e. Poor little guy... er I mean robot.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Dave Lavery does the voice over for the one seen at kickoff.

For the one shown before regionals, Blair Hundertmark (official FIRST Announcer and MC extraordinaire) does the VO.

Re: That poor robot!
 

[Dave's post]
That robot does not have the proper matterial to touch the game piece/is not big enough to tough game objects/is not going to be capable of being hurt/is magnetically attracted to danger.
[/Dave's post]

Re: That poor robot!
 

My guess is that it has to do with the plow. It might be a reference to the rule about it being illegal to have wedge like sides [G32...letter I forgot].

Re: That poor robot!
 

Plowey! :D

edit: in light of recent movies, spelling might be changed to Plow-e

Re: That poor robot!
 

Poor little Plow-e
I always do feel bad for that robot it's so cute!!!

Re: That poor robot!
 

I can't tell you how many times I show old game animations to my friends and they go "Aww!" when Plow-e gets pelted.

Re: That poor robot!
 

I think the reason they pick him, is because he is the most robust robot on the videos I've seen. Some of those in the videos, probably would break if you pelted them with balls.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Little kids would be mortified if they saw that big rubber hand sheared off by a big ball

Re: That poor robot!
 

I don't understand why nobody has made plowey yet, it can win in any game.

Re: That poor robot!
 

I always think of that robot as "Rhodewarrior 2003"... ;) There is a striking similarity.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Poor robots? Poor family. The holidays in your home must be a real...ummm... treat. Reality TV fodder for sure.

"Today, we visit the Lavery family on holiday break in suburban VA. On the surface this looks like a very normal and well adjusted family with very successful and professional parents. However, father Dave has some deep seeded issues that rear their head every winter season when he turns every hard drive in the county into a render farm in his living room. Instead of feasting on holiday cheer and recharging their batteries, this family spends the break listening to their father mutter self-deprecating comments and are forced to name wacky animated robots without eating anything but chips, salsa, and diet coke until the new year rings in.":yikes:

Re: That poor robot!
 

I think every year the first joke we make is about building one of the bots from the game animation. The only time I've seen anyone do it is 2008 with 2337 and the kicking bot. :p

Re: That poor robot!
 

One of the robots at the Midwest Regional looked like this year's "basket bot", complete with rollers and basket.

Re: That poor robot!
 

I saw a team this year that did something similar( 100% covered in bumpers, mabye 8" high, top covered in cardbord).

Re: That poor robot!
 

Did Plowey have proper bumper coverage this year? At least one of the other animation bots clearly didn't, and a third was suspect. :rolleyes:

Re: That poor robot!
 

Proof that the bumper rules were poorly worded in the initial manual! Even Dave couldn't figure them out. ;)

I apologize that this post added nothing to this conversation.

Re: That poor robot!
 

But that was the only rules violation I saw this year in the video. Dave always has a fun time meeting his deadlines for the video, before the rules are firmed up. There, back on track.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Every year our team debates long and hard on whether this is the year that we finally get to build plow-e.

Re: That poor robot!
 

I challenge your team to build a Plow-E (or any other of the perennial animabots) and bring it to IRI.

Re: That poor robot!
 

So, since a bunch of people are calling the robot I mentioned "Plow-e" I have decided to come up with a fitting acronym for it, a la WALL-E.

Meet PLOW-E: Potential Lifter Or Wedge, Earth Class

Re: That poor robot!
 

If my teams ever seed at the top 8 and you guys are on the board with plow-e, we're picking you. ;)

Re: That poor robot!
 

Plow-bot always get's smashed up =P

Re: That poor robot!
 

Well yea...the point of the box-with-wheels Plowey is to prove that if a team makes just a box with wheels, the robot will not be useless can still compete.

But yea, I've been waiting for a team to build it...even for just a side project.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Oh, now that I think of it, I know a team that built Plow-e in FVC 2006-2007. The Plow-e in that animation had hands, though. They were our second pick for alliance and basically they were assigned to hold the Bonus Ball (the game was similar to 2004, but you didn't have to cap goals / there were no HPs)

Re: That poor robot!
 

and Krispy Kremes....:D

Re: That poor robot!
 

For those who live in regions with "real seasons", Plow-E could indeed be useful...like for clearing snow from driveways!

Re: That poor robot!
 

Real seasons? :rolleyes: I thought for a second you must have been from Michigan or something and were coming on those people from Philly. Now I see you're from LA. Jealous of our sweet (read: terribly annoying) weather? :cool:

Re: That poor robot!
 

I saw a robot that was the bot that had the lifter of like two columns of indiviual spinner, which lift in between them and then emptied into a basket that dumps. This year it dumped forward and I think it dumped backward into the low goals in 2006 and maybe 2004, i don't know about that one. I chuckled a little that I can notice a video replica robot, but yeah.

Re: That poor robot!
 

That bucket robot was Team 2781, the second seed alliance captain at Midwest.

Re: That poor robot!
 

we made a Plow-E in 2007
got all the way to the quarter-finals








and due to some "expressive" driving...it did wheelies :rolleyes:

Re: That poor robot!
 

I am the moderator of 2781 RoboPride. I was not a part of the team in 2009, but I am proud to be moderating the team that has the distinction of building "Buckety". When I saw "Buckety", which is actually named BetaBot, I was surprised by the use of floating pulleys which were only in contact with the belt on their tangent... so pretty much useless.

Buckety has been cannibalized a bit, but it's pretty much intact. I will upload a picture in a bit.

Also, I can't wait to see Plowie in a few weeks.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Holy thread revival, Batman.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Well at least the new people are reading the back posts :-) That may cut down on the "new" questions in 2015. :rolleyes:

Re: That poor robot!
 

Plow-e will have his day....this I have to believe!!

Re: That poor robot!
 

On closer inspection, the floating pulleys did serve a purpose. I guess this mechanism was used to lift the balls up into the hopper, so they tensioned the belt a bit.

Anyways, here is BetaBot as she rests today. It's amazing how different the FRC robots have become with the incredible chassis kits that are available.

Here is a link to the 2009 kickoff video. Buckety can be seen at 1:20, and Plowie makes his first appearance at 1:45. He gets slammed into the wall at 2:20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyER3MrNBZQ

Re: That poor robot!
 

BTW, I believe the robot in question is actually named "Dozer" not "Plow-e".

Maybe he was officially named that after this thread was started, I don't know.

There's another recent thread around here talking about him, with some pictures and discussion of people actually building him.
Look HERE

But I agree..Go Dozer!!
I believe he shined in Breakaway (2010) where he plowed the balls into the goal.

Re: That poor robot!
 

I seem to recall that his truly finest hour was when he won the game animation minibot race and scored 40 points for his alliance.

Re: That poor robot!
 

http://beyondinspection.org/post/972...-dozer-does-it

Dozer's scored points compared to median qualification matches. Courtesy of Mr Chris Picone sitting and watching the last couple year's animations.

Re: That poor robot!
 

Someone built a non-competition robot almost identical to dozer.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ighlight=dozer

Re: That poor robot!
 

We actually ran that robot at the West Michigan District last year during lunch and got to play with some game pieces. It was incredibly difficult to control the ball with a dozer blade. Oddly enough the eyes kept hitting the ball and knocking it off center. That and the fact that they let us run wireless and there was so much interference on the field that we lost communication every ten seconds or so...

Re: That poor robot!
 

Ah, Plowie :) It's interesting how "versatile" he is. He's used in so many games, and never very useful.

Re: That poor robot!
 

He's often more useful than the average robot.