Best Inbounder Qualities?

[JohnFogarty]

Looking forward now that 4901 has qualified for championship the team is looking to improve over the next month on our abilities as a inbounder position team.

What qualities would your team place on a team to be in your mind the top tier inbounder pick.

Current Qualities:
- Consistent High Goal Auto + Mobility Bonus
- High Strength/Traction 6CIM Drivetrain for speed and power for defense.
- The ability to if needed by an alliance change strategy to human loaded truss specialist or human loaded high goal scoring team.
- device to easily/quickly herd the ball into the low goal.

Things we are working on:
- Effective ball control device to securely (even under heavy defense) deliever/eject the ball to the "truss specialist team/midfielder.
- Garanteed Hot Goal Detection

[bkahl]

Work a lot with your human player, G40s are killer. Make sure they can put the ball in play under heavy defense at the inbound zone. The human player should be able to throw the ball into the robot at a distance. I've seen defense played where a robot parks themselves in front of the human player, make sure you can get around that. If this is not possible, the HP should know when to just throw the ball on the field.

The inbounding role relies on the HP more than anything. Make sure they have a lot of practice and understand their role.

[Canon reeves]

Train your driver extensively, watch loads of film, learn driving tactics and effective defenses. Be sure you driver team can communicate, train the coach to be very useful, have the coach tell the time, have the coach tell the driver whether they need to play defense or inbound. Train scouts, review your scouting system, optimize it. Make sure your drive team knows the rules very very well, they should be able to quote them on the spot, not necessarily the rule exactly,but the general what could you do. Put the drivers in theoretical situations, watch a match then pause it, have them walk through what they would do. Learn how to escape defense, if somebody t-bones you, learn what to do to get around it.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

Looking forward now that 4901 has qualified for championship the team is looking to improve over the next month on our abilities as a inbounder position team.

What qualities would your team place on a team to be in your mind the top tier inbounder pick.

Current Qualities:
- Consistent High Goal Auto + Mobility Bonus
- High Strength/Traction 6CIM Drivetrain for speed and power for defense.
- The ability to if needed by an alliance change strategy to human loaded truss specialist or human loaded high goal scoring team.
- device to easily/quickly herd the ball into the low goal.

Things we are working on:
- Effective ball control device to securely (even under heavy defense) deliever/eject the ball to the "truss specialist team/midfielder.
- Garanteed Hot Goal Detection

Effective "Kiss Pass" passing, as well as other methods of passing, like dumping it into another robot. Being able to pass short-range to the human player is also a plus.

[Ginger Power]

I would say:
- Full court assisting (think team 900) would be a highly desirable quality in an inbounder
- Ability to quickly transition to defense after getting rid of the ball
- Effective defense
-Absolutely no G40 penalties
- Smart drive team with the ability to coordinate the whole alliance before the match
- Drive team is quickly able to coordinate an adaption to the preplanned strategy when things aren't going well
- Doesnt let the ball hit the ground (unless the next robot requires the ball to be on the ground to pick it up)

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

I would say:
- Full court assisting (think team 900) would be a highly desirable quality in an inbounder
- Ability to quickly transition to defense after getting rid of the ball
- Effective defense
-Absolutely no G40 penalties
- Smart drive team with the ability to coordinate the whole alliance before the match
- Drive team is quickly able to coordinate an adaption to the preplanned strategy when things aren't going well
- Doesnt let the ball hit the ground (unless the next robot requires the ball to be on the ground to pick it up)

Check... check... check... check... check... check... and check.

Ok, 900 is definitely ready for championships.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by marshall

Check... check... check... check... check... check... and check.

Ok, 900 is definitely ready for championships.

It was a lot of fun watching your team operate. I really hope I can see your robot at champs (if we can make it!).

[Chris is me]

High goal scoring doesn't matter one bit for an inbounder. The truss specialist is the backup scorer, and even then a 1 point goal is likely sufficient and faster. I would make that a lower priority than even a blocker.

Quick HP loading, solid intake, not dropping the ball, quick release, robust heavy defense drive

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

solid intake

Why this? Considering this robot more than likely would be receiving the ball from the HP.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

Why this? Considering this robot more than likely would be receiving the ball from the HP.

There is a high probability that the human player misses the robot at least once in the match. That makes a solid intake an important quality. If the robot never misses the ball from the human player then an intake isn't necessary. However, I wouldn't want to take that chance.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

Why this? Considering this robot more than likely would be receiving the ball from the HP.

What happens if you do drop the ball before a possession has been acknowledged?

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

There is a high probability that the human player misses the robot at least once in the match. That makes a solid intake an important quality. If the robot never misses the ball from the human player then an intake isn't necessary. However, I wouldn't want to take that chance.

In the few times that that did happen to us, we simply herded the ball using our herding device over to the next team. It was very quick. No intake needed. (We were also under defensive pressure as well.)

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

Why this? Considering this robot more than likely would be receiving the ball from the HP.

Intake is dramatically more important than high goal. High goal without intake shouldn't even be in the discussion of possibilities.

Any ball that ever makes it on the floor in any way needs to be returned to alliance control as fast as possible. There will be situations where a defender may disrupt a pass or dislodge a ball and the inbounder is the robot free to retrieve the ball. I would not consider picking an inbounder without an intake if one with an intake was still available.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Intake is dramatically more important than high goal. High goal without intake shouldn't even be in the discussion of possibilities.

Any ball that ever makes it on the floor in any way needs to be returned to alliance control as fast as possible. There will be situations where a defender may disrupt a pass or dislodge a ball and the inbounder is the robot free to retrieve the ball. I would not consider picking an inbounder without an intake if one with an intake was still available.

He's absolutely right. A solid, quick intake makes kiss-passing easier and lets you bypass a partner in a T-bone. If it was between a robot with a stronger drivetrain and a robot with a better intake, I might pick the better intake.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Intake is dramatically more important than high goal. High goal without intake shouldn't even be in the discussion of possibilities.

Any ball that ever makes it on the floor in any way needs to be returned to alliance control as fast as possible. There will be situations where a defender may disrupt a pass or dislodge a ball and the inbounder is the robot free to retrieve the ball. I would not consider picking an inbounder without an intake if one with an intake was still available.

This, all of this.

Basically, if you're trying to build or become the 'best inbounder possible' you're essentially saying that you're going to be the alliances third (or fourth) robot. In this year, but also previous, the 3rd robot, or inbounder usually plays the 'tactical role' more so that either of the first two machines. The tactical role is the one where your robot will do anything and/or everything required to complete the overall strategic objectives, regardless of they're the objectives decided 10 minutes before the match, or ten seconds into it.

Just playing with scenarios here, but hypothetically, a third robot could, in theory, be the team responsible for cleaning up after autonomous - especially if you're paired with two big names that are going to draw an onslaught of defense the second tele-op starts. In this case, you absolutely want an intake, especially when you're moving the ball more than a few feet.

There are also scenarios where you may inbound to the trussing robot, who fires to the scoring robot, and the scoring robot is being defended and kept away from the ball. In this instance, it could also make sense for you to go retrieve the ball and either get it into the scoring robot, or get it into a goal, but either way, you'd want to be able to get it into your robot and where ever it needs to go.

Also, something specific to inbounders, but the ability to do 'pass through' inbounding is really, really handy. 'Pass through' inbounding is when a ball is dropped into your robot, and it essentially rolls through and into your partner without really needing to do much other than maybe reversing your intake. Do this a couple of times per match and you'll see that the time adds up to big savings.