Aerial Assist Discussion Thread

[MetalJacket]

Originally Posted by AWB

What if i'm in the red zone and shoot the ball over the truss to a robot in the white zone? 30 points or foul?

Blue Robot in Red Zone (loading area) shoots over the Truss to a Robot in the White Zone = assist #2 = +10pts if scored

[Chris_Ely]

Originally Posted by UnTrustedTruss

I have only read seven pages of this, is someone already pointed this out, forgive me. Until then get out your tinfoil hats.

I really think we are all missing out on a major clue, a clue that is going to be vital to the game. Watch this video from about two minutes in and on. You may have missed this line but it is so important.

"We are doing this a bit differently this year, making changes from kickoff to championships this year"

What changes have been made this year thus far? This game is exactly the same as every other year, with no organizational differences championship wise. We also don't have an endgame this year, and for such an easy challenge, this seems odd.

Think about it, the only challenge is team coordination, everything else is just pure driver twitch skills. Now go back your pictures of the truss from kickoff, I know you took them, that thing is hefty. We had two or three people hanging from it at the Upper Darby Kickoff, no sag.

Why would they bother to build such a hefty truss that could be replaced with a taught rope? We believe the reason is because there is an endgame we don't know about yet. Now, look at the extremely detailed rules about height requirements for the goalie, these are super detailed, yet so horrible.

No one is going to be able to play affective defense with 6 inch diameter pole that cannot be articulated. Having a dedicated goalie will be a drag on the rest of the team (missing out on tri-assists). I believe, personally, the lack of a height limit will be extended to the incoming endgame in which you must attempt a hang.

A hang? We had a hang last year? We did, but it sucked, those pyramids were $@#$ near impossible to climb to the top, everyone just did level one holds. They were a major disappointment. Why not give us a chance to retry it.

A Mid-season added endgame challenge seems so plausible right now.

sets aside tinfoil hat

^^this
Here is the truss spec sheet. This thing is a heavy duty lighting truss. A 30' span can support 1726 lbs evenly distributed. Saving weight for a later endgame addition might be a very good idea.

[AWB]

so we get 10 pts for assist, 10 for going over the truss, 10 for a robot catching it (assuming it does) and 10 for score on the high goal, right?

edit: and another 10 if we pass it to a robot our the scoring zone

[UnTrustedTruss]

Originally Posted by luckof13

^^this
Here is the truss spec sheet. This thing is a heavy duty lighting truss. A 30' span can support 1726 lbs evenly distributed. Saving weight for a later endgame addition might be a very good idea.

Just added this fact to this speculation thread. I think it is best we move this over there to clear the room for questions here.

[MetalJacket]

Originally Posted by AWB

so we get 10 pts for assist, 10 for going over the truss, 10 for a robot catching it (assuming it does) and 10 for score on the high goal, right?

edit: and another 10 if we pass it to a robot our the scoring zone

Wow, can't believe I forgot the truss and catch bonuses ... yes, your analysis appears to be correct

[UnTrustedTruss]

Originally Posted by petrokid96

This I find as Extremely false because my team, Greater Rochester Robotics (G.R.R.) 340, on practice day at Finger Lakes Regional we showed a full 30 point climb and we preformed that almost every match after that including at the Buckeye Regional ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyq0w7H76IU ). We also saw at least 2 other teams do a 30 point climb at Buckeye.

That is an awesome climb! Although many did succeed, a much great number didn't even attempt more then one. I feel like that was very much outside of the spirit of FRC, and I see no reason for them not to attempt to get us to try again.

[pfreivald]

I'm not sure if shooting into the high goal will be more difficult than it at first seems, but this game almost seems...too easy. (Drat, jinxed my whole team there, didn't I?)

That means that the challenge is in taking this "too easy" challenge and doing it better than everyone else--which is never easy.

Still, it's as or more challenging than designing a robot for Lunacy, and should be well more fun to play/watch.

[mcchev]

Has anyone started thinking about drive train yet? I personally have more experience with mechanum, but I'm not sure what my team is thinking about drive train. Any ideas?

[Charles Boehm]

By my count, 60.

[Alyssa3044]

Originally Posted by mcchev

Has anyone started thinking about drive train yet? I personally have more experience with mechanum, but I'm not sure what my team is thinking about drive train. Any ideas?

I'm wondering the same thing. I generally design the drive system for our team, but this year so far we feel like agility is above being defensive (not my personal though, I feel like good wheels with nice grip are a great thing to have on the chance that everything else in our robot decides to fail and we can't fix it before the next match). I've personally never done mechanum, we tend to stay more towards tank drive. But there has already been talk of swerve drive and butterfly drive. However we are leaning more towards mechanum because I am moving on to the more complicated subsystems in mechanical, as is my co-captain. So we will see what happens. Any help with mechanum would be appreciated though!

[Darth Drew]

Okay, I've read the rules pretty thoroughly, and there's something I can't figure out, if my ball starts in the driver zone, and I can't cross between zones, and I can't pass between zones (driver and human player) and the ball must be entered from the side of the field, how do I get the ball onto the field?

I've noticed users talking about how this challenge is a blend of multiple past challenges. One of our college mentors referenced Breakaway (2010) often during brainstorming as a similar game principal.

The past challenge I haven't seen mentioned yet that may be helpful in design ideas (ball transport!) and such is Overdrive (2008) due to the large playing pieces.

Edit: I noticed this thread after posting: 2008 actuated forklifts

[Mike9966]

We weighed our inflated ball this afternoon, and it was 2.75 lbs. Now, my question is, how much variance is there in the weight of the balls?

Could make a big difference in shooting it.

Mike

[gchen694]

Originally Posted by kk_4849

What is the weight of the game ball? I can't find it in the manual.

The ball weighs 2.75 lbs.

[iPenguin]

Originally Posted by Darth Drew

Okay, I've read the rules pretty thoroughly, and there's something I can't figure out, if my ball starts in the driver zone, and I can't cross between zones, and I can't pass between zones (driver and human player) and the ball must be entered from the side of the field, how do I get the ball onto the field?

I'm guessing you're referring to the autonomous period. Before the match begins, you are allowed to preload a ball onto your robot following the specifications in G5:

For ROBOTS starting in the white ZONE, the TEAM may preload one (1) of their ALLIANCE’s BALLS such that the BALL is touching their ROBOT.

For ROBOTS starting in their GOALIE ZONE the TEAM may decide if the BALL is: staged between the TRUSS and the ZONE LINE and not contacting an ALLIANCE partner, or removed from the FIELD for the MATCH.

If a ROBOT does not report to a MATCH, its ALLIANCE may decide if the BALL is: staged between the TRUSS and the ZONE LINE and not contacting an ALLIANCE partner, or removed from the FIELD for the MATCH.

Violation: If the situation is not corrected before the start of the MATCH, TECHNICAL FOUL per BALL improperly staged.