[ZZII 527]

SBPLI Day 1 Summary
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(from the eyes of Team 527)

The practice rounds started off as you might expect them...with very few robots doing anything. Being able to get onto the field and move was good enough for the first hour or two. But as the day went on, many teams worked out their problems and some things became clear:

1) Despite the apparant hanging-robot craze, there were a significant amount of capping robots at SBPLI. In fact, there may be just as many pure cappers as pure hangers...and there are plenty that can do both. It's hard to tell how successful the cappers will be because team members were helping out the human player by rolling balls through the chute themselves. Tomorrow we will know for sure.

2) Very few robots can knock off the teed balls in autonomous mode. Most did nothing or went for the mobile goals. Some danced.

3) Hanging takes longer than expected. For most teams, 30-60 seconds is needed to get to the bar and hang. Typically, no more than one or two robots hung in each round.

4) Step climbing seemed to be difficult for many teams and there were a significant number of robots that tipped over while climbing.

5) Dragging the mobile goal under the ball release will only give you a few scored balls on average. (We tried one time and got none...they all fell around it and not one went in.)

Feel free to add your observations.