Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

That doesn't change the fact that they still get the 10 points from being over on that side.

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

The balancing should make it pretty exciting. Also the designs will look pretty different from each other unless people start stealing ideas. There are so many different ways to approach the game.

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

The penalties section of the rulebook is somewhat vague. ::rtm:: ::rtm::

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

The kick-off video shows a robot with smoke pouring out of its battery pack (at about :55). :)

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Is there a listing of competitions listed anywhere for FTC? It looks fun to watch.

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

the first competition of this year challenge is on 11/6/2010 :D

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Actually, the Northern California qualifying rounds start with the "Screamage" on 10/31... (Assuming there are 12 teams able and willing to compete).

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

We looked at tiltmeters two years ago... keep in mind that any motion of the robot changes the "tilt" --- they are also called accelerometers for a reason!

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Is there going to be any webcasts of these matches? I'd love to start seeing how everyone else is playing the game

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Anyone who competed in Face-Off should find a lot of the concepts to be similar. But completely different.

One thing I want to see for sure is good ways to get batons off the floor. Back in Face-Off at the World cup when I was on FTC 1102 M'Aiken Tech Magic, I remember 2818 being on of the only teams being able to pick pucks off the floor...at all!

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Tolerances are something to keep in mind at all times!
Especially when trying to traverse the mountain.

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

True, blocking the middle goal still allows scoring. But if your alliance partner can get the doubler baton and score, parking in front of the middle goal may be a good strategy during autonomous (and would be an autonomous program within the reach of almost every team).

One way to look at it is this: a perfect score in autonomous (assuming you score with all 5 pre-load and don't somehow get some batons from the opposing alliance) would be 502 points (2 x (47*3 + 25*2)) for the rolling goal baton scoring, plus 2*45 for batons dispensed, plus 2 x 15 for balancing). Assuming you don't dump out any batons during driver-controlled, you would get another 382 for the rolling goal baton scoring, for a match total of 884 points attributable to a perfect autonomous game.

But if the middle dispenser is blocked and impossible to get to in autonomous, you could get only 239 for an otherwise perfect autonomous game (33*3 + 25*2 for rolling goal baton scoring {assuming no magnet batons were in the middle dispenser}, plus 2*30 for batons dispensed, plus 2 x 15 for balancing). With an additional 191 added for rolling goal baton scoring in driver-controlled (assuming you get and score all the batons during driver-controlled that were blocked during autonomous), your match total would be 430 (attributable to autonomous plus the 14 more batons from driver controlled).

Thus, against the theoretical "perfect" opponent, blocking the middle dispenser during autonomous alone would cut the opponent score by at least 263 points in autonomous and by at least 454 for the game as a whole (more if a magnet baton or two were in the middle dispenser). Anything that prevents 454 points or more sounds like a good way of preventing at least some scoring.

Probably no opponent will be good enough to approach these scores, but the better your opponents, the more it looks like blocking the middle dispenser might be good strategy (as long as your alliance partner is good too).

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

I'd like to take an opportunity to say "never say never"
Last year with HotShot we saw some ridiculously high scores and made a few of them ourselves. It's possible you could end up with a situation like that. and for intents and purposes I think all teams should at least have a autonomous that could accomplish blocking the goal.

Now I'm not encouraging a boring defense autonomous mode either. YOU HAVE 40 SECONDS. Please use that time and don't just sit there.

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

Amen to that!

Take some time and build a program that will at least drive over the mountain! That gains you 10 points and (in reality) will probably block most other autonomous robots that want to come to your side to grab the doubler too...

Re: Thoughts about the new FTC challenge?
 

I doubt it... that particular qualifier is open to teams from anywhere though... so you're welcome to come to California and join in!