WOW factor
 

Just wondering where people are putting a little more emphisas on a certan part of their robot? a WOW factor

Re: WOW factor
 

I'll say something vague and cryptic for this one.

Often, subtle aspects of the game that are emphasized in design that turn out to be "the most important" are less obvious than they seem. For example, in 2008, basically every good team could hurdle in a few seconds. In my mind, what set the best teams apart from just the "good" teams was ball acquisition. This is evident in the teams that did well (1114's roller claw, 217's arm that could grab a bouncing ball, etc). So what do you think a lot of teams will be able to do this year? What aspect of that do you want to do differently or better to set yourself apart?

I hope a few aspects of 2791's robot will wow people, but there are surprisingly few original ideas in this world.

Re: WOW factor
 

i think our chassis is as much a wow factor as our kicker and lifter... hopefully everything will be amazing and this'll be an awesome year.

Re: WOW factor
 

Our drivetrain is the definite source of awesome sauce. I would elaborate but it's a secret ;)

Re: WOW factor
 

I agree here.

The winningest teams will do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Re: WOW factor
 

Us too. Though i will divulge nothing more until waterloo.

Re: WOW factor
 

Ozzie Smith. He made the difficult plays look routine.

Re: WOW factor
 

I'd say our kicker design is fairly interesting. A little unstable, but has the power to get it down the field

Re: WOW factor
 

We have a good round robot. We are using pixel sizes to calculate strengh for our kickier to hit it right to the goal. We also are mounting a figurehead on the front C-channel piece. :)

Re: WOW factor
 

Andrew its no secret its all here on our youtube channel :)

-Sean

Re: WOW factor
 

hey on another note how many of the WOW factor lifters are lifting two robots???

Re: WOW factor
 

If you are designing one part of the robot to be a WOW factor, then you didn't spend enough time on the rest... something is only as good as its weakest point.

Re: WOW factor
 

The FRC field is usually dominated by the robots that can perform the basic tasks efficiently. This normally means acquiring and releasing the game piece quickly, despite defense pressure. This year it will also require the mobility to neutralize the bump and expand your field presence.

A quiet but valuable WOW factor this year would be quickness - the ability to edge out another robot when both want the same ball, contact the ball at full speed without knocking it away, turn to the goal without losing the ball or having it move out of your kick zone, line up on the goal quickly, and kick it for a score - all in one continuous, fluid motion before the other robot has the chance to block you.

A robot righting itself will be a WOW factor. Needing to use it frequently isn't something to be proud of.

Hanging is always a big WOW factor for the audience, but if you develop that ability at the expense of good ball handling or increased tipping risk, I think you are hurting your overall effectiveness.

I also think that a long kick is a wow factor, but perhaps not a particularly useful one - especially if it means a slow recharge time or a high, heavy mechanism.

Re: WOW factor
 

Agreed. Agility. Quick, clever agility.

A certain boxer comes to mind - "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee..."

Re: WOW factor
 

I think the simplicity of our arm will get some wows, and hopefully the speed at which we hang as well! It uses several constant-force springs to deploy a three-stage telescoping arm and once the bot is latched onto the bar it will flip the chassis vertical to hang. At least it will once the arm is mounted... *fingers crossed*

Re: WOW factor
 

No WoW for us. We're keeping it simple, solid and consistent instead of flashy, full of bling bling:cool:

Re: WOW factor
 

No wow factor for us either. Just a plain old machine.

Re: WOW factor
 

I hope to be able to say, "WOW, we put a working robot in the crate".

Re: WOW factor
 

Amen to that.

Re: WOW factor
 

/Begin Scene/

Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Time: 5:30 PM

Location: My apartment

I enter my apartment to see my wife sitting watching TV.

"You're still here? You haven't left me yet?" I say.

"Yep and nope," she replies.

"Wow."

/End Scene/

Re: WOW factor
 

My wife sticks around too. She helps with the team, but I feel like I go home to sleep and not much more now.

We're going for a little WOW all over.

Re: WOW factor
 

WOW! I realized I haven't watched TV for a month until yesterday. ;)
Not too much wow on our bot, unless, nah I shouldn't put the disco ball on the robot this year!

Re: WOW factor
 

They'll be saying Wow when 816 and 11 Are on the Same Side of the Field at Jersey.

:D

Like Previous Years, We hope to wow people with our driving and strategy.

Re: WOW factor
 

As usual, our robot won't be pretty, it won't have a cool paint job, or any awesome-looking metal parts (water jet or whatever it is). We hope our "WOW" factor this year would be winning the regional for the first time since the creation of the team.

Re: WOW factor
 

My team isn't really going for wow factor, we're trying to keep it simple and win.

Re: WOW factor
 

no wow unless if u consider missing 1/3 of the build season and still having a decent robot, wow.

Re: WOW factor
 

Our kicker. Early prototypes of it were nicknamed The Death Machine, due to the fact that it spins so fast.

Re: WOW factor
 

We're just hoping we can get the ball over the bump... So far it can... from about a foot away. Eh, mech's fault.

Re: WOW factor
 

To us it's having all the robots at the competition inspected working and not missing matches. That's WOW!

Re: WOW factor
 

I think you are seeing how the effects of practice and TONS of fine tuning can help you excel in an area where most are mediocre. So maybe instead of asking "What is the most important", you should ask "What can I do really well that most teams will overlook"

Re: WOW factor
 

I cannot disclose the feature of our robot with the biggest wow factor, but the arm is really nice:cool: .

Re: WOW factor
 

We are making a 22wd. is that a wow factor? :rolleyes:

Re: WOW factor
 

Where's the fun in FIRST if you don't put a little Bling in your machines? I've traded in my 6061 and Polycord for balsa wood and cyanoacrylate, but I'll be darned if there wasn't something on every robot that rolled out of 1276's shop that made us go "WOW!" (we always hoped the judges would go "WOW!" too, but that never panned out :o)

Re: WOW factor
 

For us, building the machines, and the competition itself. Trust me, we get a lot of miles and smiles out of it. ;)

Re: WOW factor
 

One thing I have observed with far too many teams is they go for the WOW factor when they aren't even capable of accomplishing something as simple as going from point A to point B.
Remember in the modern 3 team alliance structure if you do one thing and do it well there is a place for you. If you do nothing well people will forget your name very quickly. That doesn't have to be a WOW factor either. More like an ALRIGHT factor. I'll take reliable over WOW any day of the week.

Re: WOW factor
 

There are some very wise words in the above post.

When we design, the 'WOW' factor never enters into the conversation. Everything is about 'Does it enchance our strategy?' and 'Is it reliable?'.

Everything else is not worthwhile. Championship teams are made because what they do, they do very well.

Re: WOW factor
 

But when you look at the finish product, you never find something worth saying "WOW" about?

(I experienced the WOW factor of your robot last year on the far side of the field! :o)

Re: WOW factor
 

Ed is right. I have seen a lot of robots with serious even award winning WOW that sucked at playing the game.

Re: WOW factor
 

Okay, I finally figured out the WOW factor for my team's robot.

With practice, tuning, current conservative estimates say we can go from normal configuration to above the plane in under 5 seconds. Arm deploy, hook snag, AND hang. In practice, I'm going to say 10 seconds, but I'm cautiously excited.

And that's not the part of our robot we put the most emphasis on. I'm really excited.

Re: WOW factor
 

hmmm. WOW factor? well, two out of the three years i've been on the team, we've used fans.

just sayin.

Re: WOW factor
 

Thank you for the compliment.

... and I'll tell you the truth, while I never design for 'WOW', every year I look at the robot when it's done and I'm amazed at what the kids have built.

This year will probably be no different (although I'm too tired right now to enjoy the WOW factor)

Re: WOW factor
 

Our WOW factor, when it works, will be the integration between kicker and arm.

Again, when it works...

Re: WOW factor
 

Our wow factor is definitely in our kicker

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...egy4/Robot.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...nderrender.jpg

the spinning kicker is controlled by pneumatic pistons to slide it in and out of the plexi gate.

By utilizing an encoder on the spinner and the time it takes for the pistons to deploy we can choose where the spinner hits the ball as well as how fast its going at that time. (we can do high and low shots-even though its a spinner!. This gives the advantage of a spinner with the precision control you would get from an adjustable foot style kicker)

(Cutting the inside geometry for the gate would not be possible without our new CNC laser cutter! FTW)

Re: WOW factor
 

The "wow" factor? The ability to put balls into the goals at an alarmingly high rate :D

Re: WOW factor
 

I know a lot of teams that are trying to accomplish climbing the bump, hanging, scoring, and playing defense. This year is a year that your robot needs to focus on one thing. For example, if you have a robot that can score a lot of balls, then you need to focus on that goal, and not try to accomplish all the tasks. If you try to accomplish all of the tasks then most teams are not going to have a dominating robot. I'm not saying that no team is going to be able to accomplish all of the tasks that FIRST has provided us with this year, I'm just saying that it is going to be difficult.

Re: WOW factor
 

While I'm a proponent of "one thing well", I think if the integration of a feature is seamless with the rest of the robot, there's no reason not to do it just because you want to do one thing well. Only if it takes away from your higher priority functions is it unadvisable.

For example, say the main function of a robot (say, 2791's) is to kick balls, and to build it you'd run a 6wd. If the addition of 2 more drive wheels gives you rudimentary bump climbing ability, then throw them on!

Since this year there's actually more than one real task, some robots will try and do everything well and turn out to be flexible yet relatively mediocre, which is better in qualification but you suffer in elimination. Specifying is more risky in qualification, but more successful in elimination. Doing everything perfectly without compromise is an ideal I don't see many teams achieving this year.

Re: WOW factor
 

if we can get it done and running before competition... wow... if we can get a working kicker on there? WOW... snow... ruins everything...

Re: WOW factor
 

our wow factor is either the wheels or the design on our parts.

if you wanna see the wheels, find the thread "wheel envy".

Re: WOW factor
 

Ou wow factor is a good solid bot that can preform the tasks that need to be done. Over the years our team used to go for the robot that could do evreything perfict and recently we have switched over to a philosophy of doing somthing that is simple, and doing it well.

Re: WOW factor
 

The wow factor for us is

Re: WOW factor
 

okay i've decided our WOW factor was driving it around our school today wireless for the first time... its REALLY fun playing with a robot you built yourselves and drivin it like crazy

Re: WOW factor
 

Funny we did the same thing, Luckily finding some flaws that are able to be fixed...Hopefully....:p

Re: WOW factor
 

I named team 2185 robot.....FIRE...HD! The team members have renamed it....THE BEAST!!!!! Look out Waterloo and GTR...LOL.
So just imagine a BEAST playing Soccer....

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I think ball control is going to be what sets the best teams apart from others, specifically the ability to pivot with the ball for targeting purposes, or having some way of being able to target and maintain possession

Re: WOW factor
 

Our wow factor is probably our driving. We have a couple good drivers, and we find that the stock drive train works very well.

Re: WOW factor
 

I WAS thinking the same thing - until we crated the bot and it wasn't working yet:ahh:

Now it will be - WOW, you actually got it work!!

As a rookie team this year, I feel like we didn't really get things started until say week 3.5. Even one extra week or starting somewhat closer on-time would have made a huge difference.

Re: WOW factor
 

Keeping hold of the ball is definitely a problem in this year's game.
Once you kick it, it's likely to bounce around all over the place. Has anyone reliably strafed across the field, keeping legal control over the ball?

Re: WOW factor
 

Suction and a 6 wheel swerve = not a problem. From video i've seen, that is.

Re: WOW factor
 

*Like*

Our wow factor will be all the changes we'll be making to our robot at Trenton next week :rolleyes: ...and at Boston....and before Atlanta.:)

Re: WOW factor
 

We didn't design the robot to necessarily have one strongest point, but rather to be well rounded. However, I would say that our strongest aspect seems to be our drive system: we can clear the bumps while employing a passive system to handle it as well as maintaining enough traction to be able to play defensively really well.

Re: WOW factor
 

Our wow is autonomous and kicker. Many of you are aware of our 3 balls in auto- http://www.mechanicalmayhem.org/teamvideos.asp However, we only got 2 balls in at the most, but we accomplished our goal of getting balls out of the far zone. But this past weekend we have changed it to kick 5 balls in auto. Kicks the first three and then proceeds to the middle zone to kick those.

Good luck!