"Dud" robots

[Anthony4004]

Originally Posted by julianpowell

When you load a ball for autonomous you are taking a calculated risk. If you think it's likely that your autonomous will malfunction then you don't have to load a ball.

You do not have to load the ball into the robot, you can have it on the carpet touching.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by tondogone

You do not have to load the ball into the robot, you can have it on the carpet touching.

The problem is not that your robot could malfunction and lose you the round. The problem is that you get put in the position where you have to tell your alliance partners that you think their robot's autonomous mode is worse than useless. That's a good way to make people resent you.

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

The problem is not that your robot could malfunction and lose you the round. The problem is that you get put in the position where you have to tell your alliance partners that you think their robot's autonomous mode is worse than useless. That's a good way to make people resent you.

Your alliance members have always been able to jeopardize your chance of winning by doing something negative for the team. This is nothing new.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

Your alliance members have always been able to jeopardize your chance of winning by doing something negative for the team. This is nothing new.

In previous years, if my alliance partner wanted to stop me from scoring, I could still grab discs/basketballs/tubes and score them, or I could single balance, climb, or deploy a minibot. This year, if my partner gets stuck with the ball, I can no longer get points for the rest of the match. Think about if Einstein 2012 happened again, and a robot didn't work on the field. 0 points for that allinace . That's the first time they've made a game where your partners MUST continue working if they have a game piece.

I predict if there are field issues (let's face it, it's not unlikely), then teams will be really mad.

[Yalib]

What about a robot losing communication? just e-stop him immediately? because usually a robot who lost com will "come back to life" after a number of seconds..

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Yalib

What about a robot losing communication? just e-stop him immediately? because usually a robot who lost com will "come back to life" after a number of seconds..

Well, if its a three second communications drop (which we and all of our alliance experienced at CMP a few times last year), then wait. If the cRIO reboots, it'll be more like 20 sec, and if the radio goes down, more like a minute, which is too long. You can't e-stop an unconnected robot.

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

The problem is not that your robot could malfunction and lose you the round. The problem is that you get put in the position where you have to tell your alliance partners that you think their robot's autonomous mode is worse than useless. That's a good way to make people resent you.

Pointing out to me that my shooter might malfunction and lose the match for my alliance will not cause me to resent you. However, designing your robot in such a way that it loses me a match might. You better believe that our scouts this year will be noting which teams cost their alliances matches this way.

This aspect of the game is actually one of my favorites this year. It makes designing a shooter which must be pre-loaded a HUGE risk. If your robot fails, you cost your alliance the match. So you have a couple options:
A) Start with the ball on the floor and load it before shooting. That way, if your robot starts out dead, you don't cost your partners the match.
B) Don't shoot at all.

I see this rule as part of a deliberate effort on the part of the rules committee to make powerhouse teams less dominate. This year, the risk vs reward for building a shooter is very high. If you build a shooter which must be preloaded, you risk losing matches for your team. Even if your shooter works perfectly, it is easily defended against by a robot ramming you as you are shooting. This lowers the advantage that elite teams have had in the past, bringing them down towards the effectiveness level of a team which builds a simple pusher bot.

Remember the teams last year who asked, "Why did we spend all the time and effort to build a 3 tier climber, when we can be beaten by two robots who only feeder-station load, shoot, and hang for 10 points?"

Answer: The game designers are deliberately designing the games so three rookie teams who work together can beat an elite team who plays alone.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

The problem is not that your robot could malfunction and lose you the round. The problem is that you get put in the position where you have to tell your alliance partners that you think their robot's autonomous mode is worse than useless. That's a good way to make people resent you.

Any team that lets me know that their autonomous mode may be 'worse than useless' is marked high in my book because they are honest (we can help them with the autonomous mode).

It's the ones that tell me that they can do it all, when they are barely functional that bother me.


Also:
Is anyone concerned that if a bumper falls off your robot will be disabled? And this could happen with a ball inside your machine?

[dubiousSwain]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Any team that lets me know that their autonomous mode may be 'worse than useless' is marked high in my book because they are honest (we can help them with the autonomous mode).

It's the ones that tell me that they can do it all, when they are barely functional that bother me.

I totally agree with this

[Damyen]

Can my robot pick that other ball and score it as well to earn more autonomous points?
Just a thought of a solution