We need your precious help/suggestion.

[amoshneupane]

Hey there. Wassup?

My school WC Bryant HS's robotics team is a rookie team in the FRC 2013. Since this is our first time. We are kinda in a dilemma. Is throwing a Frisbee okay for us or do we need to focus more on the defensive strategy than the offensive one?

We would like to know about your experiences in the FRC to understand about the competition from first person point of view because you guys have been a part of the FRC?

Do share your valuable suggestion and help us!

Amosh

PS: What about the animation video? What are the things do we need to include in it?

[j_chen_1676]

Hello!
Name is Jeff Chen, 3rd year Pascack Pioneers, Co-CEO and mechanical. Recommend that you guys play to your strengths. Rookie teams can do amazing things.

It's important to prioritize what features your robot will have, making sure building a shooter doesn't detract from the entire stability of your robot. IMO, especially with information published by Robots in 3 days, shooter capability isn't especially difficult.

[tl;dr] go with shooter if it doesn't detract too much from robot Performance. Otherwise, focus on perfecting a defensive bot.

[3132MentorMike]

Have you used a structured approach or process to understanding the game rules, brainstorming on how you might be able to play the game, and then come to some sort of consensus on what sort of robot could play the game the way you decided?

Our team (3132 "Thunder Down Under") has a set of powerpoint slides that we got from Team 365 MOE and have modified a bit. We've used them with a lot of the rookie international teams and it seems to help teams get to a good place in terms of robot concept and design when you don't have a lot of robot building experience.

If you want this set of powerpoints, send me an email. You may find it useful or not, but it's another data point.

[jdh042397]

Hello Rookies!!!!!

I represent Team 4063 from Del Rio, Texas. I know how you feel exactly. Our team was rookie last year and understand when I tell you we were incredibly confused as well.

Now on to your question. Most teams will have a different viewpoint and how you do things. You might find better success in offense. Some of us (my team included) have decided to just focus on climbing. Just try what you feel will do you justice. FIRST is all about fun.

Team 4063

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by amoshneupane

Hey there. Wasusp?

My school WC Bryant HS's robotics team is a rookie team in the FRC 2013. Since this is our first time. We are kinda in a dilemma. Is throwing a Frisbee okay for us or do we need to focus more on the defensive strategy than the offensive one?

We would like to know about your experiences in the FRC to understand about the competition from first person point of view because you guys have been a part of the FRC?

Do share your valuable suggestion and help us!

Amosh

What is OK depends on the resources/design capabilities you have available. Judging by the fact that you are asking this question, I would say that you probably do not have experienced FRC designers on your team.

The first piece of advice I have for being a successful rookie: Pick a few relatively simple tasks in the game, and do them well. This year, those tasks could be:

1) Scoring in the low goals
2) Shooting frisbees far, but not accurately so you can feed partners
3) Hanging on the level 1 bar

If you can do two of those things (you might even be able to do all three), and do them consistently, you will be off to a great start!

The second piece of advice is something that is followed by all of the top teams in FRC. The three most important systems on your robot are:

1) Drivetrain
2) Drivetrain
3) Drivetrain

A robot that drives well always has a leg up on the other robots. You can find some great resources for how to build a simple, effective drivetrain from 1114's Kitbot on Steroids, or the IFI VexPro folks. You have a base in your kit of parts that will work quite well right out of the box too! Your #1 priority should be to have a good drivetrain, no matter what you put on top of it!

The last piece of advice: Keep it simple. Don't worry about what all the great teams are doing, or cool complicated mechanisms and fancy designs you see here on CD. Prototype your designs if you can, keep things simple and robust. 6 weeks may seem like a long time now, but it's really not. If you can use the last week or two playing around with your assembled robot, practicing your driving and tweaking your mechanisms and code you will be far ahead of most veteran teams.

At competitions, consistency counts far more than potential. A robot that does a few simple tasks very well is far more likely to seed high or get selected for eliminations than a robot with great potential and lofty goals that can't be counted on to work when needed.

[3132MentorMike]

To build on what Nuttyman54 has said, we tell our rookie teams to make sure a) you can drive and b) do 1 thing well. Robustness and Reliability!

You will have a blast at your regional if your robot is "in the game" for all your qualification matches. For a rookie season, that's a really good goal.

[amoshneupane]

Thank you guys for all the valuable information. We are going to try our best, keep it simple and try to do at least one among the three challenges that we have to conquer.

May the odds be in our favor!

Once again thanks and keep informing us about any new ideas that can of help!

Amosh

[IronBenderII]

My suggestion is this. Find one thing to do very very well. Don't try and do too much. Have a stable / solid drive train (use the kit bot), and figure out something simple and unique to you can offer an alliance. Remember, every disc you prevent your opponent from scoring is basically a score for your team - don't be afraid to mount a good defense! H short robot that just pushed you opponents missed frisbees under their tower (where many robots won't be able to get to them) and then hangs for 10 points is a solid robot. A robot that picks up off the floor and dumps them in the lower point bucket and hangs for 10 points is a great robot too.

Good luck!

[slijin]

I highly, highly recommend that you take a look at Karthik's Effective FIRST Strategies presentation. It's very informative, and even veteran teams have learned a lot from it.

As you guys are a rookie team, I suggest you do two things in particular:
1) Reach out to teams in your area. Most teams are more than happy to help and discussing ideas and direction with a local veteran can often not only bring perspective, but a valuable contact who can offer you hands-on assistance in the midst of the havoc of build season.
2) Focus on the MCC that Karthik mentions - the minimum competitive concept. No matter how good a robot is, games are still 3 v 3 - you have to think about how you're going to play the game. Remember, you're designing a robot for the game, not forcing a robot to play a game. Ultimately, the robot you build will determine what you can and can't do - continued iteration and strategy can take you far, but only if you have a robot to get there.

-edit- I just noticed that you guys are actually also in New York. Please, do not hesitate to PM me or other members of Stuypulse or other teams in the area.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by slijin

I highly, highly recommend that you take a look at Karthik's Effective FIRST Strategies presentation.

If anyone from 1114 is reading, I'm wondering what is the status of the captioning effort that was initiated back in December.

[Alex.q]

As previously stated, I would recommend to rookies to pick one or two functions and execute them well. Don't try to do everything (my team is still struggling to find the sweet spot). Its better to have one great mechanism than several mediocre or poor ones.

Finally, as rookies, don't limit yourself to thinking you can only do defense. There have been many successsful rookie teams in the past that succeeded in building more effective robots than many veteran teams. I would advise you to find a design that allows you to fall back to simpler strategies if the original design doesn't work: e.g. if your original design was a shooter but is terribly inaccurate, it could easily be converted to a low goal dumper. I have also found that nearly any good offensive robot with a strong drivetrain can play defense when required, which makes these robots more versatile than a purely defensive robot.

Your design will ultimately depend on what strategy your team decides to follow, but I would think that an alliance with two distance shooters would favor a robot that could pick up rebounds and at least dump them into the low goal. This robot could also work as defence to clear frisbees from the other side.

Being reliable in whatever you do is key.