Climbing Speed Ranking

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by themccannman

I'm pretty sure as of right now the fastest climbing teams are 254, 1114, 1986, and 118 in that order. That's just what I've seen though there are probably others that are faster that I haven' seen.

Unless I've missed them climbing, 118 hasn't gone above 10. (they removed their 30 point climber, unless they put it back on)

[DanielCH]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Unless I've missed them climbing, 118 hasn't gone above 10. (they removed their 30 point climber, unless they put it back on)

On the same note, 254 has never climbed to 30 pts in competition either. Both 118 and 254 have displayed the ability to do so on their practice field, but it hasn't been seen in the wild, as they say. As of March 30th, 1114 has the world's fastest, verified competition legal, climber (as far as I know).

[BrendanB]

At GSR we (3467) climbed in 40 seconds. For Pine Tree next week we enhanced our climbing code and are now in the 20-25 second range. We shall see the official time next week.

[SteveGPage]

We climbed to 30 in about half our matches at DC this weekend. After some code modifications and adjustments, I believe we were in the 20 - 25 second range. I'll have to get the video and get a good timing for the climbs. I'm sure we'll post the videos to our YouTube channel by early next week.

[Mr. Lim]

GTRW Finalist 1334 has a sub-20 second climb and dump for 50 points.

http://watchfirstnow.com/archive3.php?id=63000921

They start their climb at approx 37 left, and complete it with about 18 left.

They qualified for CMP by both a wildcard for being finalists, and more importantly for winning EI at GTRW.

They also had a student, Sam Thompson win Dean's List, and also won the Imagery Award.

Needless to say, it was a VERY good tournament for this great team!

[Kevin Leonard]

At Connecticut today, team 2170, the Titanium Tomahawks had a CRAZY eliminations match where they went to climb with 20 second left (when it normally takes them like 30-40) and they got to the top and probably would have gotten points from a dump too except that the pyramid goal bottom opened up and the discs fell through. Luckily those discs would not have made a difference in the final outcome of the match, but the climb itself was impressive.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by Jeffy

A good definition of when a climb starts will certainly be needed for an accurate comparison. In 254's video, they start it the first time the bot moves above the ground, but it takes them time to first get under the pyramid, line up, and deploy the hooks upwards before the climb starts. Similar scenarios happen on other bots, some line up faster than others.
Sort of sounds like minibot climb time vs deployment + climb.

A meaningful definition might be "When do you need to stop shooting and commit to climbing?"

You could start the clock when the robot leaves level zero and stop it when the robot exits level 2. That is an "objective" definition, but it doesn't really tell the whole story. There are no extra points for getting to the top first (like minibots), but if a fast climb means you can run one or two more cycles, then that matters. What really defines the start of the climb is when you stop playing "the rest of the game" and devote yourself to climbing. The climb clock stops when the match ends. You could go from level 0 to 3 in two seconds, but if you quit shooting discs at 60 seconds, spend 20 seconds lining up, and then sit at the top for 28 seconds, you are no better off than somebody who quit shooting at 60, lined up in 5, climbed in 50, and sat for 5. What is important is that you know how much time you need (less is better), and you make the most of the remaining time.

It also matters whether or not you are carrying discs to the top. That adds the transit & loading time to your cycle, but the payoff is pretty good. How long does it take to unload the discs at the top (1334 beats 1114 on this one)? How many "cycles" can you turn before you need to load the colored discs?

As for our robot, it takes about 25 seconds from when we exit level 0 until we exit level 2. However, our true "climb cycle" starts at the pyramid when we unload white discs and decide what to do next. We need about 65 seconds to go get the colored discs, line up, climb, & dump.

[GeorgeM]

The Cyber Gnomes, Team 2013, after fixing a few things - we're able to consistently cycle twice and 30pt climb at the 45 second mark during GTRW. I would say that after lining up for the climb it takes them 10 seconds per level.

This consistency, mixed with an okay schedule, landed them 4th place before alliance selections.

They teamed up with 1241 and 1325 to make for a killer combo to take them to the semi finals where they met their demise to the hands of 1310 (finalists at Waterloo), Peacock, and of course the "Smoothest Climber", 1334.

We're going to see a lot of 30pt and even 50pt climbers in the finals matches of each division at champs.

[zackgratti]

I think 453 can do it in roughly 15seconds

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

The video measures 17 sec.

....during a practice match. Based on these two competition videos I would adjust that to 18 sec.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...XbddE#t=11 0s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...WMLYg#t=10 8s

I would offer the excuse that we were having some stuttering trouble during the lift from field comm. issues.

[fox46]

Wayne is right--

Climb time means nothing if it takes you the entire match to line up. If you are counting from the second we grab the first bar to the second we clear the 20 pt zone, our climb takes 20 seconds at full throttle.

BUT - this is entirely negating that when I see the clock hit 60 seconds left, I was alerting the drivers to finish their run of discs and make their way to the bottom of the leg. Some climbs were a "drive up and deploy the climber" kind of occurance whereas others were "drive up and futz around for 20 seconds before hitting the gas.

In many cases, some 10 point robots which take 2 seconds to lift off the ground could not for the life of them line up which meant they were unable to hang. Even 254 executes this type of hang before climbing and the video does not show this. - Yes it's an incredible mechanism, BUT if they can't get it lined up and off the ground then they aren't going to be making the 30 points.

Remember that teaser videos are all filmed under "ideal" conditions and are not always representative of actual performance. Case in point- I recently read a post that 118 had removed part of their climber and was only pulling 10s - very contrary to their reveal video.

[jspatz1]

+1 to Wayne and Fox46's points. Obviously climbing speed is irrelevent if it is dependent upon a lengthy positioning or configuration process. We are enjoying the format that places us in the ideal climb start position when shooting. For a 30-point climb we would like to have the final disk out with at least 22 sec. remaining so we can make one movement before engaging the bar.

[Mastonevich]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

+1 to Wayne and Fox46's points. Obviously climbing speed is irrelevant if it is dependent upon a lengthy positioning or configuration process. We are enjoying the format that places us in the ideal climb start position when shooting. For a 30-point climb we would like to have the final disk out with at least 22 sec. remaining so we can make one movement before engaging the bar.

Does the timer start from the point of commitment to start climbing then?

I am not sure we will really ever get consistent comparisons if that is the goal. What I do know is it was many teams goal to reach the top quickly, and teams like 1114 and 1986 have definitely succeeded. Congratulations to all who had success in climbing this year.

[JRader]

3496 climed and scored top goal in 35-40 seconds only missing one climb in quals and quarter finals. total of 340 climb points.

[protoserge]

Originally Posted by SteveGPage

We climbed to 30 in about half our matches at DC this weekend. After some code modifications and adjustments, I believe we were in the 20 - 25 second range. I'll have to get the video and get a good timing for the climbs. I'm sure we'll post the videos to our YouTube channel by early next week.

http://youtu.be/JwLPrD7ycHw?t=2m12s

Playlist (I had a Windows update restart in the middle of my upload... wait a few days for the rest to be up there) :

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...AatQRKu5-bH0AE

Here is a closeup of how the ascent system works:

http://youtu.be/yW0uZyK9Rsk

The extension of the "skyhook" is manual. We are working on automating the process for more speed. We are currently software limiting the speed for robot safety.