2012 West Michigan District

[Wayne TenBrink]

1918 is looking forward to the 2012 West Michigan District at Grand Valley State University's Allendale Campus. This is a wonderful venue run by some excellent volunteers. There will be a lot of great teams there this year as always. For many, this will be their second (or even 3rd!) event. We expect to see some well developed strategies from the experienced drive teams and de-bugged robots.

We hope to try some teamwork strategies in hybrid. Please let us know if you are capable and interested in joining us in this.

1) Our most successful hybrid routine at Gull Lake involved us moving forward about 3 feet and shooting in the top basket. Our robot feeds from one side and shoots from the other. We have a 30+ inch wide intake roller in our arm/bridge tipper assembly. We let the collector and shooter continue to run after we shoot our original two. If your robot is capable of rolling balls across the floor (by reversing the ball collector, etc.) you could feed us. You would need to be able to roll the balls about 3-5 feet.

2) If you are capable tipping the coopertition bridge in a way that the balls can roll forward unimpeded, they will roll into our robot and be shot.

3) If you collect from one side and shoot from the other, we can feed your robot if you are set up to receive them in autonomous.

There are a lot of robots out there that are mechanically capable of doing these things, but perhaps don't have a hybrid routine currently programmed to do them. Think about it and let us know if you want to work together to try them out at WMD!

[MagiChau]

Thank you 1918 for the great competition at Gull Lake, and thank you West Michigan for being a great event existing since, I believe, 2001? We hope to make a big improvement from our performance at Gull Lake. I look forward to seeing all the robots we haven't seen yet in action.

Since you have started on the topic of hybrid I will share information about our & my thoughts on hybrid after Gull Lake.

The standard 12 points from our robot in autonomous are of the highest priority so we will most likely prefer shooting first over tipping the bridge first especially if we know the other alliance cannot tip the center bridge. Autonomous is definitely as big with it determining a large portion of final match score, seeding, and tie-breakers in elimination matches.

We will see if our robot can start out backwards so the turret can turn around and shoot, and then drive forward to tip the center bridge. We will see if we can get our robot able to suck up balls from the bridge and score those. We have been capable of tipping the bridge without our robot in the path of the falling balls so that is another option for autonomous.

Honestly, right now we are focused on refining our ability in tele-op for scoring balls programming wise with camera tracking & shooter calculations. At Gull Lake we obviously wanted guaranteed points with the fender shots.

You did not mention how to time the shots in autonomous. The time it takes for each robot's shot to reach the net probably should be noted to help time the shots better.

I have not asked so what did your team use for the autonomous driving at Gull Lake? I currently have an untested program for trapezoidal motion profile because of the simplicity of the implementation.

[Vikingtech2054]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

1918 is looking forward to the 2012 West Michigan District at Grand Valley State University's Allendale Campus. This is a wonderful venue run by some excellent volunteers. There will be a lot of great teams there this year as always. For many, this will be their second (or even 3rd!) event. We expect to see some well developed strategies from the experienced drive teams and de-bugged robots.

We hope to try some teamwork strategies in hybrid. Please let us know if you are capable and interested in joining us in this.

1) Our most successful hybrid routine at Gull Lake involved us moving forward about 3 feet and shooting in the top basket. Our robot feeds from one side and shoots from the other. We have a 30+ inch wide intake roller in our arm/bridge tipper assembly. We let the collector and shooter continue to run after we shoot our original two. If your robot is capable of rolling balls across the floor (by reversing the ball collector, etc.) you could feed us. You would need to be able to roll the balls about 3-5 feet.

2) If you are capable tipping the coopertition bridge in a way that the balls can roll forward unimpeded, they will roll into our robot and be shot.

3) If you collect from one side and shoot from the other, we can feed your robot if you are set up to receive them in autonomous.

There are a lot of robots out there that are mechanically capable of doing these things, but perhaps don't have a hybrid routine currently programmed to do them. Think about it and let us know if you want to work together to try them out at WMD!

Looking forward to compete with at west Michigan, we have two autonomous's set up.
1. we shoot our two ball in about three seconds, back up to the middle ramp and tip it while still collecting balls and continue to shoot from the middle bridge.
2. we also have an autonomous set up where we sit there shoot while having our intake conveyor running to be able to intake balls from other robots.
If there is a team that would like to work with us that would be awesome! it seemed to work well at the Kettering district.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by Vikingtech2054

Looking forward to compete with at west Michigan, we have two autonomous's set up.
1. we shoot our two ball in about three seconds, back up to the middle ramp and tip it while still collecting balls and continue to shoot from the middle bridge.
2. we also have an autonomous set up where we sit there shoot while having our intake conveyor running to be able to intake balls from other robots.
If there is a team that would like to work with us that would be awesome! it seemed to work well at the Kettering district.

I hope we can try it. Tonight we were practicing a teamwork routine with decent success - we set up front/center, shoot our two, lower the arm/collector, and let the system continue to operate. If the bridge is lowered without the balls being blocked, they roll down the ramp, across the floor, and into our bot. Would be good with a teammate who could shoot their two, then get back and drop the bridge. We are also working on one where we set up in the back of the key, shoot our two, go to the bridge, feed them through the system and dribble/roll them out the front into another shooter. That one needs some more work yet.

[Mike AA]

910,85,1918 Just won round 1 of finals with 3 robots on the bridge.

[kgzak]

1918, 85, and 910; You made that triple balance look easy.

That is all I came here to say.

[MagiChau]

We had a great time at West Michigan, and congratulations to 3546, 2054, and 141 for the win. The autonomous not working in the 2nd final match was shocking as us triple balancing in the last second during one of the final match.

[GBK]

Congratulations to 3546, 2054 and 141 for the win and thanks to 85 and 910 for helping to make the elimination rounds some of the best competition I have seen this year. To be able to pull off the triple balance withing 15 seconds from the time the decision was made to do it, was amazing.

[techvikesmom]

I want to congratulation all 8 alliance teams at the West Michigan Competition.
They were all capable and well balanced alliances that make for such an exciting elimination bracket play. In quarter finals, 3 out of the 4 games went into tiebreaker matches. And the finals took 3 matches too.
A big thanks to team #3546 for picking teams 2054 and 141 for your alliance partners!! It was exciting!! Congrats to teams 1918, 85 and 910 for your 3-bot balance alliance!! The crowd loved it and we did too.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Thanks to GVSU for hosting another great event. Thanks to all the volunteers who made it possible.

West Michigan currently holds the record for the highest average qualification match scores in Rebound Rumble (25.35). It also continues to favor the blue bumpers. Since MI went to the district system in 2009 (and I don't know how long before that), the #1 alliance has never won here. I know for a fact that we were shooting a lot better when we had the blue bumpers on yesterday!

Congratulations to 3546, 2054, and 141. You were a formidable force. Tech Vikes - See you in the finals again next year?

Thanks again to 85 and 910 for joining us. Balancing 3 twice in emergency mode was a blast! Unfortunately, we joined a small fraternity of teams that balanced 3 and still lost the match.

Special congratulations also to 4337 (from the bustling metropolis of Holton) for surviving build, putting together a scrappy bot, and taking the coopertition award.

[Refresh]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

Since MI went to the district system in 2009 (and I don't know how long before that), the #1 alliance has never won here.

According to Blue alliance, the 1st seed alliance won the previous year. So that record hasn't been around for long.



As always, I have enjoyed this district event. There are some tough robots and the competition is always so enjoyable to watch. And I am glad to be able to volunteer for the second year as field reset to be able to help keep the event running smoothly.

Congrats to 1918, 85, 910, 141, 2054, and 3546 for an amazing finals. Good luck at state!

Finally, I am amazed at some of the human players. I was standing behind the red alliance wall and I had to catch some impressive throws made by the human player as well as robots. It just made the game so much more fun!

[techvikesmom]

I believe Wayne is right about #1 alliance not winning at West Michigan.
Last year teams 2054, 67, and 107 were #1 alliance and teams #1918, 27, and 3357 were #2 alliance that won it all.
An interesting note: 1918 won in 2009, 2054 won in 2010, 1918 won in 2011, and 2054 won in 2012. I like the idea that maybe we should team up next year!! Again, great alliances to all this past weekend.

[Refresh]

re-reading, I guess I was a bit vague. Guess that tells me I shouldn't be posting late at night. I meant to say that the 1st seed alliance last won West Michigan the year before district events started. It was won by 2171, 2604 and 71.

[stuart2054]

Originally Posted by MagiChau

We had a great time at West Michigan, and congratulations to 3546, 2054, and 141 for the win. The autonomous not working in the 2nd final match was shocking as us triple balancing in the last second during one of the final match.

You guys did great and if your alliance automous had not had issues it probably would be us congradulating you.

Luck enters into the equation and we had it this year as it we did not in West Michigan last year. Our USB hub breakdown and 67's incident with the tube fouling up their drive in 2011 was big disappointment but thats life and you take your lumps and move on.

I was really happy to be in the finals with the Wo-Bots (141) as I met a nice person from that team in 2010, (my rookie year) at GVSU and she gave me a lot of insight into the competition and it was cool to make things happen with them and 3546. We have a lot of respect for BOB you guys always are creative.

The triple was awesome not just once but twice during the finals. We tried with our partners and it just was not going to work with the robots we had. Good Luck to team 85 BOB. I hope to see you guys in Yipsi. If we do well enough in Niles we will see you there.

[MagiChau]

Originally Posted by stuart2054

You guys did great and if your alliance automous had not had issues it probably would be us congradulating you.

Luck enters into the equation and we had it this year as it we did not in West Michigan last year. Our USB hub breakdown and 67's incident with the tube fouling up their drive in 2011 was big disappointment but thats life and you take your lumps and move on.

I was really happy to be in the finals with the Wo-Bots (141) as I met a nice person from that team in 2010, (my rookie year) at GVSU and she gave me a lot of insight into the competition and it was cool to make things happen with them and 3546. We have a lot of respect for BOB you guys always are creative.

The triple was awesome not just once but twice during the finals. We tried with our partners and it just was not going to work with the robots we had. Good Luck to team 85 BOB. I hope to see you guys in Yipsi. If we do well enough in Niles we will see you there.

Nice job though with a 36 point autonomous in the last match. You guys indeed were the better alliance with the consistency of your auto over-powering the triple balance. We plan on fixing shooter speed control for more consistant shots. Interesting that we tied in tele-op baskets though. You guys pretty much already qualified for state since 65 state ranking points was over enough to qualify in previous years. Hope you guys will get a chance to attempt the triple balance.