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Unread 04-12-2013, 13:54
Lil' Lavery Lil' Lavery is offline
TSIMFD
AKA: Sean Lavery
FRC #1712 (DAWGMA)
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Re: Robot in 3 Days : Feedback

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto View Post
I see your point about how RI3D could limit variety in design. However, how many non-wheeled shooters did we see in 2012, the pre-RI3D era? I can think of 16 and was it 1523? Also a team from Israel used a tennis racket. That's all I can think of, maybe I'm missing a ton. Can we really say RI3D was to blame for lack in shooter variety?

A lot of teams used 2006 and 2009 as their base for designing their 2012 bot. I know the frisbee was a new game element, but like James said, there were already videos of wheeled frisbee shooters online, and more videos from other FRC teams by the end of week 1. It seems like whatever is out there, teams will use. If not RI3D, something else.
I remember at least a couple catapult or other weird launcher designs at each event I went to in 2006 and 2009. One of my alliance partners at Peachtree in 2006, 1139, used a pneumatic piston to launch balls (they also made it to Einstein that year). 384 and 1086 both built catapults in 2009, and faced each other in the finals at VCU.

2012 saw less, that's for sure. 16 and 2474 are the most notable I can think of in terms of shooting from the key (and 2474 had a wheeled shooter for barrier shots). But we still did see plenty of "dumping" and "dunking" mechanisms for 2-pt shots that didn't rely on wheeled shooting. I was hoping to see more mechanisms specially crafted to score on, say, the pyramid goal (like 1024). Wheeled shooters were likely the optimum design for the "cycling" and full court shooting robots, but there were other strategies that would have suited other shooting mechanisms that were left mostly unexplored.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto View Post
In your team's design process, are you against looking at online videos/testing/data, and instead rely mostly on in-house designs? Or is that your goal at least? Sounds like RI3D was a point of contention/frustration in your team's design process last year. Just curious.
No, not in the least. But, like most good teams, we want to arrive at a design driven by our approach to game strategy and consider all opportunities. Outside influence is very important in our design process, but it's not the initial step. Thus the immediate release of RI3D tainted our brainstorming process some, with a large portion of it almost immediately following along those lines (aside of a couple wacky climber ideas that almost certainly wouldn't have worked). It wasn't at all a point of contention or frustration for the team as a whole, but it didn't allow for pure design brainstorming as much as I would have liked. Research has a lot of value in engineering design, but it can also stifle creativity if timed poorly.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto View Post
You use a certain set of skills by ignoring outside data and brute forcing through a problem yourself. You use another set of skills by blindly copying what is available on the internet. You use another set of skills by taking outside data, synthesizing it, and utilizing the data to improve your designs.

Some would call using RI3D a crutch. Some would call it smart. I fall with those in the second camp. But then again, I'm a terrible engineer and copy everyone else all the time
I didn't mean to say that RI3D was a crutch to every team, but it is certainly a crutch to many. If used responsibly it can be beneficial with minimal side effects, but that is not always the case.
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