Thread: Defense?
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Unread 24-03-2010, 19:04
RRLedford RRLedford is offline
FTC 3507 Robo Theosis -- FRC 3135
AKA: Dick Ledford
FRC #3135 (Robotic Colonels)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Chicago, IL USA
Posts: 286
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Re: Defense?

We were chosen to be with 111 and 1625 in the Midwest Regional.
Being a small rookie team (but at least with 4 seniors who had been on cooperative teams before), we attempted to do a way more complicated build than we had man power to handle. When our robot shipped, it had only one feature working and tested - a stellar drive. The remainder of our bot parts were all brought to competition, and many were not even fitting correctly, since we had no CAD record of the build, and measurements were spotty at best. Day1 was a nightmare of problem solving and we made no practice matches. We barely passed inspection at the end of the day, and our variable winder kicker was getting a mandatory weight reducing makeover.
At that point we still had nothing working but our short wheelbase (18') tank drive :
(2) Dual CIMed Super shifters gearboxes w/ pneumatic shift (sometimes)
(4) 8" dia. chain driven, Plaction wheels with Roughtop tread
We were also right up against the 120 lb limit.

We began the Day 2 qualification matches able to do little more than push balls poorly and defend. As our driver learned to drive, he soon found that the added weight of penumatics & kick winder toughbox has imbalanced the bot so much it no longer traversed the hump.
As we made the best of what we had, it soon became clear we had a super fast, powerful, very maneuverable, high traction tank driven bot. This allowed us to nearly even keep up with the more nimble swerves and mecanums when going for balls and position on the floor, and once we quickly arrived, we could push and disrupt pretty much all these more advanced drive bots at will.

As the day progressed we became quite good at defense, since there wasn't much else we could accomplish, but this only placed us in the high 20's (of 42) in the standings at end of 2nd Day. With two more qualifying matches to complete on AM Sat, we were not expecting to make the elimination round. We concentrated on getting our winder & ball handler ready for the upcoming Northstar Regional. So far, we had missed no qualification matches, and we made the last two on Sat AM as well, scoring enough to move up into the lower 20's in the standings.

We soon found out we had been picked to be with a 111 and 1625 alliance! How could we decline this? Clearly our defensive prowess had registered with at least these two powerhouse teams. We scrambled to eliminate any penalty producing problems and to upgrade our ball pushing accuracy. Kicker remained too risky to activate. We then squeaked into the semi-finals carried mainly by 111's autonomous kicking of 3 balls from the far zone, but all 3 alliance members started developing bot problems. Near the end of our last match of the semi's, chain issues doomed our chances, taking out both our bot, and 1625 as well.

So, I advise all teams out there whose abilities are mainly in the defensive column, sharpen them up and go with them. They can carry you further than you might expect. We will continue to wreak some defensive havoc in Minneapolis, and even with a working full field kicking winder clearing 3 balls in autonomous, plus some decent ball handling, we will still keep focused our defense all the way to the finals there. BTW, we did win the Rookie All Star award at Midwest Regional.
-Dick Ledford

Last edited by RRLedford : 24-03-2010 at 19:14.