LogoMotion Learnings from Scrimmages

[Mr MOE]

For those who watched or were present at any scrimmage this weekend, what did you learn about LogoMotion from seeing the game actually played?

[Thanks to all the volunteers who made these scrimmages happen!]

[iblis432]

Like every year, I realized the field is a lot bigger than I thought. I always kinda figured the poles would get in the way, but they are easily avoided. Also, the lanes don't extend as far as you might think.

[Koko Ed]

That teams have most like underestimated the importance of deployment as they focused on the speed of the minibot going up the pole when they can't even get to the thing.

[Chris is me]

That it's remarkably easy to get a tube past midfield by throwing, if you know the right technique.

Also, we learned that our robot is awesome.

[MagiChau]

Game pieces on the floor are hazardous obstacle courses for robots.

[MooreteP]

I will be posting two videos from the Suffield Shakedown soon.

Scrimmages are mostly for the FTAs to troubleshoot the field operating system.
Also, rookies feel better about their progress.

In some of the videos, you will notice error codes flashing where the team numbers are usually displayed.

The tower base colors are cool.

Logos will be made. Autonomous will improve. Ubertubes will be important.

Minibots are game changers. Deployment mechanisms are crucial.

Minibots falling on the field and getting run over by the robots are, to quote Andy Grady: "Oh the moral horror!"

Midfield traffic jams and ubertubes clogging the lanes and the rack base are issues.

Defense will be an effective strategy in the midfield area.

We won't know until week three, but I think this game will be a very good one indeed.

[BrendanB]

Figured to keep the discussion in one place.

We attended team 151's Week Zero Event in Nashua, NH which was a great event and many thanks to team 151 and the FIRST staff. Our day was harsh but a lot was learned and I am glad it wasn't at the regional. 4/6 matches were spent with blinking lights from radio/code problems and the two matches we did move were the only ones in which our minibot wasn't going to work! Our team left with a lot of new thoughts on approach and have a lot to do! Even with the issues it was a great experience to get some time with the real field system and FMS.

Thoughts on the game:

1. It is really hard to tell your distance from the yellow to blue or red/opponent home zone so really watch our for your location the field.

2. Tubes being thrown. Since today was practice with teams testing human players I wasn't surprised to see a ton of tubes on the field, but tubes on the field really played a difference in that most of the time teams didn't have to travel all the way to their human player but cleaned up in the middle of the field.

3. Remember the logo! You are scoring in front of you so remember that if you see a perfect logo on your rack in front of you, you have a problem!

[Robby Unruh]

I'm really excited to see some videos. I'll be sure to show them to my team at tomorrow's meeting.

[ouellet348]

At suffield

1: top row is win or lose, literally for the final match

2: minibots are great but you have to use them well

3: even a great alliance of individuals can lose if they don't work together to make logos, working together on the same and doing two yields more for the time than doing two separately

4: minor manipulator/arm flaws completely disable a team, use it well

and finally 5: autonomous separates the men from the boys

[gyroscopeRaptor]

Smart feeders are a must.

Also, ground-pickup is near impossible unless you are picking from at the wall.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by gyroscopeRaptor

Smart feeders are a must.

Also, ground-pickup is near impossible unless you are picking from at the wall.

What type of gripper do you have or is this an observation?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by gyroscopeRaptor

Also, ground-pickup is near impossible unless you are picking from at the wall.

I expect the problem is that most manipulators are designed to pick up from the robot side of the tube, and instead of grabbing it, they push the tube away from themselves. Ours picks up from the center, we run into the tube, drop the manipulator into the middle, and lift it up. We made the other type of claw in 2007 and had the same problems you witnessed.

[MarcD79]

Originally Posted by gyroscopeRaptor

Smart feeders are a must.

Also, ground-pickup is near impossible unless you are picking from at the wall.

It is possible. Here at Suffield Shakedwon, there were a variety of robots, including team 176. 176 just slid their arm slightly from the side & clamped down They didn't need an immobile object to push against.

[cdechant9]

At the team San Diego pre-ship expo, we noticed it was nearly impossible to place over inflated tubes over uber tubes.

Over inflated tubes were ever easily knocked off.