[FTC]: Autonomous?
 

So as a Veteran Programmer for 3864, and our FRC Team 1102. I wondering for this years Game what do you plan to do for autonomous mode.

We have as of now 9-10 different programs, some shoot, some collect an entire tower then shoot, some collect both towers, and also if needed defense programs.

What does you team plan to do.

See you at Nationals,
John Fogarty GFORCE 3864

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Ours are about the same. We've found that- to have solid autonomouses (that can handle defenses)- quite a few sensors are needed, especially because a defensive autonomous can be as simple as "Drive forward for 6 seconds".

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

What I'm finding is that the infared sensor is extreamly inaccurate, I had trials with it and they performed ok, but not well enough. I like the color sensors though so it can see the goal. Though i like using timing because you will always have a certain level consistancy sensors don't give.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Yeah. A mix of dead reckoning and sensors is always nice. I haven't used the color sensor much myself; how accurate is it?

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

At the NorCal tournament our IR Sensor based routine was accurate enough to typically get 7-8 balls (the pre-loads) into the high goal during autonomous. We do currently use dead reckoning to follow the goal as it spins around though - we're looking at how to avoid that for World.

We brought three autonomous routines and used two of them... At world we're planning on bringing at least 8.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

All I can say is that autonomouses that do not work are the difference between a sloppy close defeat and a clean surefire win ;). Any defensive or offensive strategy can be overcome by simply applying the necessary pressure via a good autonomous strategy. The teleop after two opposing offensive autonomouses will be a match for the record books.

We will not make the same mistakes in Atlanta, will we Buddy?

There's a way to make the IR sensor VERY accurate. You simply have to apply what most teams did with the FRC camera in 2007 to get it working properly with the green light, and placement is KEY.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

The code I looked at for our teams 2007 camera is only slightly useful, I wrote a base code within several if, then statements just to see values come back on the screen. It can be good, if you have the time to write 100 lines or so of code.

We have strategies that my Drive team is formulating to help make autonomous better. We also added a new addition to keep balls from escaping when we open a ball chute, with a wide enough angle so none of the balls can pass without entering our hopper which takes up 75% of our robot = holding lots-o-balls.

The color sensor is really nice but it's range is limited. I have to dead tell it how to get to the goal, but once it's there it makes the minor adjustments to get in line to shoot.

Yeah Our Autonomous was a key factor on how we won one of our regionals, we had the high score of the day but ended up having a failure in the Finals match 2 but luckily we scored 5 in the high goal during autonomous so we won the match. I hate failures but we are training our Field team to be able to fix any problem in 3 minutes or less, we only really have one part of our robot that can fail and now that we changed it's design it's a really quick fix.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Maintenance was pretty much the only reason we did as well as we did in VA. Every match was sloppy, and we still don't understand why the balls kept falling 6-8" short of the outer goal on the field whereas in the practice field they were getting plenty of distance. Autonomous would have made the whole point moot like it did for them in DE, but code rework meant that we didn't have the same autonomous that they had in DE. Redundancy and simple maintenance were why we survived as well as we did in VA, but in the end it wasn't enough to seal the overall win.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Yeah matinence problems are a killer at the begining of the SC reigonal our shooter came loose from it's axle, and it didn't get to the max speed high enough to shoot in the goal, But in the end we figured it our before we played our first match.

I hate how you can line the robot up perfectly and it still for some retarded reason, one or two balls still won't fall in the Goal. ahaha

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Exploding Bacon has 22 autonomous modes each doing different routines and combinations of scoring, collecting balls and defense. And thats just scratching the surface of what we could have done! :O

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

After going in as captain of alliance #1 and seeing the robot fail because of a faulty NXT wire, in the first round of the semifinals, I can definitely say that maintenance, and good preparation for each round is a key factor.

As far as balls shooting different, we've definitely found that the gold balls shoot different than the others, and the regular balls shoot way different (shorter) than any that are not the official ones...

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

Yeah you are right about the yellow ball flying different. though we haven't missed a shot with one yet :) like 5 times in one day xD.

20 AUTONOMOUS PROGRAMS!!!! WHAT IN THE HECK!!! lol, if only I didn't have to program our FRC bot I might have the time to do that, but as of now ummmm NO!! xD

Our team has something that a lot of teams don't speed at picking up balls so fast that we could gather 20 balls in 3 seconds, and our other team Atomix can do the same they are one of the only teams getting a Helix design to work.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

One of our sister teams, 354, got a helix to work very nicely. It holds ~20 balls and can empty itself in ~6 seconds from what I saw this weekend. Not sure about the pickup rate, but it's not really a big deal with a passive gate mechanism.

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

I second both points made here, and congratulate Exploding Bacon on having so many autonomouses. :eek:

Because of the character limit imposed by the NXT's tiny screen, making a single program with a menu of modes to pick from may help out the drivers a bit; selecting Blue, then Score Preloaded is *apparently* much easier to read than B_SPre_Auto. XD

Re: [FTC]: Autonomous?
 

There is one thing that, I hate is the FRC CRio doesn't have a LCD screen at all so if nothings in it you'll never know.

Yeah, HEY Exploding Bacon!!! is one of your FTC team programmers on your FRC team?? I'm heading down with 1102 next week to Florida so we should talk man :D

So I know this isn't the forums for strategy but what are your plans for nationals??