Team 254 Presents: Skyfire

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by Chickenonastick

254 isn't just good at building their robot. They're also good at taking pictures of it.

I can't figure out the timeframe either. Looking at the polycord, pneumatic cylinders, and some other things, it looks impossible to be real. But then looking at the bumpers, it looks too real to be rendered. This can't be their competition bot (yet anyway), but that plastic looks too perfect to have been used for practice.

[NickE]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

I can't figure out the timeframe either. Looking at the polycord, pneumatic cylinders, and some other things, it looks impossible to be real. But then looking at the bumpers, it looks too real to be rendered. This can't be their competition bot (yet anyway), but that plastic looks too perfect to have been used for practice.

The picture was taken on ship day of the competition bot. It will look a little different after some modifications are performed on Thursday at SVR.

[Travis Hoffman]

But...but...Skyfire was an Autobot! You must be using the he was originally deceived by the Decepticons loophole. /80'snerd

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

But...but...Skyfire was an Autobot!

He was originally a Decepticon.

[thefro526]

I really love how this robot resembles your 2006 machine but is a totally different beast in itself. You guys have really outdone yourselves in terms of robot finishing this year, I believe.

Out of curiosity, how do you intend on using your open hopper? Is it for catching your own missed shots, human loading (ala 2006) or both/neither?

[Brandon Holley]

Something tells me the bot competing this weekend will have improvements to make it even more deadly than the one we're seeing here

Awesome job as usual Poofs. Your robots are some of the most beautiful pieces of technology assembled in FIRST.

Good luck in the next 2 weeks, your east coast friends on 125 are pulling for you.

-Brando

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Something tells me the bot competing this weekend will have improvements to make it even more deadly than the one we're seeing here

Awesome job as usual Poofs. Your robots are some of the most beautiful pieces of technology assembled in FIRST.

Good luck in the next 2 weeks, your east coast friends on 125 are pulling for you.

-Brando

Bridge mechanism - I'm calling it.

But wait! Why is it on the blue alliance?!

[Kim Masi]

meh, I guess it's OK...

[Jay Meldrum]

Originally Posted by JABot67

My opinion on vision targeting is that it's something to do if your programmers have nothing else to do. Even so, most years it's a waste of time. This year I was so sure that vision targeting would be necessary, and it turns out it is not.

I would not say it is necessary, but to reach a high shot accuracy, camera auto aim is a must.

We tried having our driver (who is quite good) aim it himself. It took much more time, and yielded much less accurate results then using the auto aim. This could be very bot specific, but this is how it has worked out for us.

Looking forward for the reveal video guys!

[Nick Lawrence]

Beautiful machine. I too am interested in how you guys are going to use your hopper.

Looks like there's room for a stinger on there too.

Congrats guys, I see a return to Einstein again in your future.

-Nick

[JesseK]

The two-tone effect of a blue frame with smokey polycarb is always a really nice effect that highlights the elegance of the 'Poof bots. I really like how it looks as if it could be sold as a product.

Now for some fun speculation:

1.) The drive train looks like it'd bottom out on the bump -- the wheels are too small and spaced too far apart. Of course, it does look like they could put 6" wheels on there without a problem.

2.) It looks like the legs on the bridge lowerer have an extra hole. The Cheesy Poofs don't usually do random extra holes. I expect some 'secret' manipulator will go here...

3.) Given the pneumatic cyllinder that lowers the intake, and the fact that the balls rely on the bumper for lift into the robot, I don't know if this robot can pick up directly from the bridge. The legs will always go to the ground, and the angle of the bridge may cause too much compression on the balls that are on the bridge for them to come into the robot. This is at first study though, so who knows.

4.) This bot will possibly be the best 'rebounder' bot in the game, given the open hopper in the front. The rebounds may be rare, but they'll be pretty awesome to see if they look like they're done on purpose.

I look forward to seeing this bot in person!

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by JesseK

1.) The drive train looks like it'd bottom out on the bump -- the wheels are too small and spaced too far apart. Of course, it does look like they could put 6" wheels on there without a problem.

I would expect them to have something similar to 971 and 1868...a chassis lift skid to let them absolutely fly over the barrier.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Bridge mechanism - I'm calling it.

But wait! Why is it on the blue alliance?!

Bet you their ball manipulator appendage doubles as a bridge manipulator and possibly something to pull other bots up the bridge, similar to 1114's, as seen in this video (http://youtu.be/-QTX__5JzN) at 4:14

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by jsmeldru

I would not say it is necessary, but to reach a high shot accuracy, camera auto aim is a must.

We tried having our driver (who is quite good) aim it himself. It took much more time, and yielded much less accurate results then using the auto aim. This could be very bot specific, but this is how it has worked out for us.

You don't need a camera to have extremely high accuracy (but it certainly helps increase confidence in ramping up throughput).

If you have a repeatable shooter, then pick your hot spots on the field, line up, and execute the shot the same way every. single. time. Practice makes perfect.

Every shot our robot took in the Wisconsin finals was manually aimed, with no camera present on the robot. We hit every shot we took and made at least 5 shots in each match. Tyler, our pilot, found an aiming method in the semis that is very intuitive for him, one he is eager to continue using. Now he just has to collect ammo better/faster so we can fire more salvos. I'm actually impressed by what he can do with our *piddly* little single-wide inside the frame perimeter collection method, but I know we can do better - guess what we're working on this week?

A skilled and practiced drive team (I can't imagine how much practice time 254's crew has been getting at home!) operating a machine with the potential capability like 254's could do even more damage in full manual due to faster/easier collecting and shorter times between salvos (provided the ammo is there to collect). I have no doubt that 254's machine can be killer when manually aimed.

Now develop this kind of manual driver skill and then add a layer of automatic aiming control on top of it, with the ability to quickly bypass the system during any malfunctions? Then you are truly deadly.

Think of it as Top Gun for robots *flashbacks to 2004 IRI talent show*. Don't rely upon missiles only. Learn how to dogfight and maneuver for a shot.

[trilogy2826]

Originally Posted by jsmeldru

I would not say it is necessary, but to reach a high shot accuracy, camera auto aim is a must.

Myself and another mentor on 2826 argued this on several occasions leading up to the Wisconsin regional. Since on our practice field, vision targeting was working perfectly, it seemed a moot point.

Upon arriving at WI, we immediately had issues with our vision and the FMS interfacing in an unknown manner, forcing us to abandon vision tracking. Using the Axis camera and a well calibrated crosshair on the DS, we were able to score an average of 11 3 pt shots from the key through elims with a max of 13 made of 16 shot (last 3 missed accounted to driver pulling away as shots were fired).

Basically, I second that vision as an augmentation can be a benefit, but a well trained drive crew can pull off some amazing things when push comes to shove.

Good luck with Skyfire. The poofs are undoubtedly a role model for us all!