Under 1 sec mini bot

[Brian Ha]

I dont know if team 118 has said anything so i wont spoil it. But if you want to check it out go onto youtube and search team 118, it should be the 3rd video down. About 1 min and 49 secs long. Check it out and maybe you'll be mind blown as much as i was. And i showed my whole team. All mind blown. Just saying, watch it, all of it, it's got a secret but you wont know unless you watch the whole thing that i didnt do for 15 times until someone told me the secret and its great.

[pfreivald]

Inspired by that video, we worked for about nine hours today and managed to keep our current minibot consistent with our very consistent deployment apparatus, but cut the time from ~3.5 seconds to ~1.9. It was time well spent!

[jvriezen]

We just finished the Lake Superior Regional. We (2530 "Inconceivable") were the first alliance pick of the #2 seed, 2169, King Tec. In the second elimination match we played, I believe we got as close as anyone to the best time (both time of Deploy+climb as well as clock time at end of climb).

We had a superfast deployment using preloaded surgical tubing (maybe <0.3 sec?), released by a cylinder under robot control at exactly the 10 second mark (its release had to be authorized by pressing a driver station button prior to 10 seconds). We also borrowed 2169's minibot during elims (they brought at least five of them to the event). Theirs was a faster climber than ours, but not by all that much, ours never lost a race in all cases where it was successfully deployed (which was most of the time, not sure of the stats for attempts/success/fails)

I was the drive coach, and didn't monitor the clocks for this, but I wouldn't be surprised if hit the top before the clock read 8 seconds in that second elim match.

I never would have expected a borrowed minibot adapted to another hostbot would be so effective. (Sat lunch we very quickly made some relatively minor changes to our deployer to adapt to their minibot mounting design, though we retained our 'turn on the minibot' mechanism.


John Vriezen
FIRST Team 2530 Mentor and Drive Coach

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

In the second elimination match we played, I believe we got as close as anyone to the best time (both time of Deploy+climb as well as clock time at end of climb). ...

I was the drive coach, and didn't monitor the clocks for this, but I wouldn't be surprised if hit the top before the clock read 8 seconds in that second elim match.

Congrats on having a minibot that can get to the top of the tower within 8 seconds left on the clock!

I suspect that most regionals will have at least one or two teams with a minibot deployment system and climb speed capable of the feat.

In the Granite State Regional finals (Week 1), there were 4 successful minibot deployments -- the last minibot got to the top with 6 seconds on the clock!

A super-slowmo video was put together by team 20 to confirm that the referees got their call correct for minibot ordering. (There is a separate thread discussing this video at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=93314.)

One of the neat things about the video is when you view it at maximum resolution in full-screen mode, you can see the field clock at the far right of the blue alliance's driver station. 1519's robot hits the tower with 8 seconds left on the clock, with 40's right behind at 7 seconds. The minibots of 175 and 20 both reach the top just as the clock flips to 6 seconds remaining, with 175 being only the slightest fraction of a second ahead of 20.

From what I saw of the WPI regional on the webcast, I think 40s deployment is faster now than it was at Granite State Regional, and they likely now reach the top with 8 seconds left on the clock as well.

At later regionals, more and more teams will have faster and faster minibots...

[rcmolloy]

The real question is are we going to see a less than .75 second minibot.

[114Klutz]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

We just finished the Lake Superior Regional. We (2530 "Inconceivable") were the first alliance pick of the #2 seed, 2169, King Tec. In the second elimination match we played, I believe we got as close as anyone to the best time (both time of Deploy+climb as well as clock time at end of climb).

We had a superfast deployment using preloaded surgical tubing (maybe <0.3 sec?), released by a cylinder under robot control at exactly the 10 second mark (its release had to be authorized by pressing a driver station button prior to 10 seconds). We also borrowed 2169's minibot during elims (they brought at least five of them to the event). Theirs was a faster climber than ours, but not by all that much, ours never lost a race in all cases where it was successfully deployed (which was most of the time, not sure of the stats for attempts/success/fails)

I was the drive coach, and didn't monitor the clocks for this, but I wouldn't be surprised if hit the top before the clock read 8 seconds in that second elim match.

I never would have expected a borrowed minibot adapted to another hostbot would be so effective. (Sat lunch we very quickly made some relatively minor changes to our deployer to adapt to their minibot mounting design, though we retained our 'turn on the minibot' mechanism.


John Vriezen
FIRST Team 2530 Mentor and Drive Coach

I'd be a bit wary of automated deployment mechanisms. My team used one that fired at the 10 second mark, and we lost an elimination match when the ref said we broke the plane before the 10 second mark.

The cRio timer isn't perfectly in sync with the field timer.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by 114Klutz

I'd be a bit wary of automated deployment mechanisms. My team used one that fired at the 10 second mark, and we lost an elimination match when the ref said we broke the plane before the 10 second mark.

The cRio timer isn't perfectly in sync with the field timer.

In the second round of the semifinals (which we would have lost anyway), we were flagged for deploying early, too...

Video vindicates us; the refs made a bad call.

It happens. No big deal...

...that said, everyone has already been cautioned against using a timer (or a light sensor) because the official clock is the only thing that matters.

[jspatz1]

The clearest webcast video from our Kansas CIty matches http://150.199.24.201/WMSDownloads/r.../match_001.asf yields the following measurements:

Deployment = 0.57 sec
Climb = 1.23 sec
Total = 1.80 sec
Gameclock at start of deployment = 8
Gameclock at trigger = 7

We think we can get the deployment faster, but 1.4 total looks like a stretch.

[pfreivald]

I wish someone got the FLR practice match on video where we, at five seconds, stopped hanging a top-row tube, raced to the tower, deployed our minibot, and beat the timer. It was epic.

[mwtidd]

Instant replay for FIRST?

[Squeakypig]

Just got back from the Waterford, Michigan regional where 548 Robostangs had quite literally the fastest minibot I've ever seen. <1 second climb for sure, maybe half second to deploy? As soon as they hit the pole the bot goes up. Absolutely insane. Congratz to them for winning the regional btw.

[Doug G]

I just watched the archived video of the poofs at San Diego deploying a minibot and then scoring a tube with the left over time. Amazing.

[TehDragster548]

Originally Posted by Doug G

I just watched the archived video of the poofs at San Diego deploying a minibot and then scoring a tube with the left over time. Amazing.

Ha that's amazing! Unfortunately right now our one major flaw with our deploying mechanism is that it makes it so that we cannot raise our arm above the height for the lower level without violating the playing configuration limits, but the speed of the minibot makes up for it.

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by TehDragster548

Ha that's amazing! Unfortunately right now our one major flaw with our deploying mechanism is that it makes it so that we cannot raise our arm above the height for the lower level without violating the playing configuration limits, but the speed of the minibot makes up for it.

Uh... Maybe we should be checking with the builders before talking about the robot? Thats only the case if the deployer is out. We got no penalties called for playing configuration.

[JesseK]

Word has it that the NFL might not need all of their instant replay equipment next season. Maybe we can use it