[archiver]

Posted by Raul at 03/05/2001 1:50 PM EST


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.


In Reply to: Bottom line: How much time?
Posted by Joe Johnson on 03/05/2001 12:51 PM EST:



Joe,

Dan and I were discussing it just yesterday. Our drivers have been practicing this move over and over an insane number of times with our practice robot. He reports that they do it under 20 seconds most of the times and they did hit the 15 second mark a few times.

Of course this was practice. We shall see how well they do in the actual competition; especially the first couple of times when they have the jitters. One of the candidate drivers is the same one that drove the past two years - so that should help the jitters.

We learned so much from the mini invitational event, that we changed the controls for the functions to better utilize the 2 drivers and distribute and optimize the tasks they perform. So this helped us minimize the time it takes for us set up as a ramp.

This is the honest truth as best I know it. I do not lie - just ask my kids about my attitude towards lying (you can spit in my face, but don't you dare lie to me). And yes, it really makes me mad when an alliance partner "exaggerates" what they can do. My motto for alliance strategy negotiations is: if you have not demonstrated it, then don't say you can do it!

I like the way you said what your capabilities were. You used the word "theoretically" and mentioned that it had not actually been tested.

How stong is our deck? I have walked all over it! I have gone for rides on it.

Does that answer your questions? I try to avoid bragging because I am a little superstitious. So I will not elaborate, but a I will answer any questions as truthfully as I know.

Sorry for the long reply.

Raul