St Louis Notes

[Andy Baker]

Here is a quick update from the St. Louis Regional:

(I am currently at the team party, at the St. Louis Science center)

Robots at St. Louis are running pretty well. There are alot of first and second year teams, but many look like seasoned vets.

One of the best highlights I saw was when two Indianapolis rookies got together in an alliance... team 1018 was on the HDPE, and they deployed a ramp behind them. Team 1024 rode up on their ramp and both were awarded 25 points. This round is surely a strong candidate for "play of the day"... and it was by 2 rookies!

Baxter Bomb Squad looks strong as usual. They are very quick.

Team 547 is consistently knocking over the entire stack in auto mode... very efficent and effective.

There are many robots with huge honkin' wheels here... very nice.

Team 868 is stacking pretty well... but they have a low seed.

There are not too many stackers out there. The ones who are doing it seem to be getting better, but a few are giving up on the stacker mentality and simply pushing totes.

I am mostly amazed by the quality of the teams with only 1-2 years of experience. They not only have robots that work well, but they also have canopy pits, overhead projectors, and they are sharing their scouting data. This is our first trip to St. Louis, and these teams over here have a good idea what GP means.

As for team 45, we are doing well. Things are getting tweaked and we are having some fun. Hopefully, things will go well tomorrow too.

later,

Andy B.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Thanks for the update! Do you like the St. Louis Science Center? I was there about 3 months ago, and it was pretty enjoyable. I bet I know which section you're in, too...

[Stephen Kowski]

how much time does 547 do this in? sounds like fun, I know St. Louis was fun last year....

[Clanat]

After seeing so much discussion on the Technocats' robot, how well did it perform?

[Gadget470]

From: http://www2.usfirst.org/2003comp/events/MO/

45 (with partners 447 and 1018) was knocked out in the quarter finals by 525, 356, and 16

the Kat's seeded 11th with a 108 average QP

[Clanat]

How about some details?

[David Bing]

My own team (1067) didn't do that well, but I was rather proud when our robot, the programming recently modified by me to combat 547's entire stack push-over, but untested, reached a standoff at the top of the ramp that was literally a battle for the wall.

[Caleb Fulton]

CIA!!!!

I'd like to thank both teams in our alliance for giving us a chance to be in the finals on our first year...We were elated!

[Archon]

Originally posted by Clanat
How about some details?

They were too bulky to do much damage. Their suction cups worked only moderately well. As long as someone pushed on one of their wings, the opposing robot had enough leverage to move them around. Their autonomous mode was pretty good, it worked most of the time, and they were quick to the top.

We seeded fifth, and won the Motorola Quality award.

[Clark Gilbert]

Ok

I just got back from St. Louis about 30 minutes ago, overall I'm pretty pleased with what we figured out about our robot. Our arms work, woohoo!! after adding an extensive amount of latex tubing the arms go up and down with ease. This allows us to keep them up or down to let people on the ramp or to the other side. Our suction cups never got used. After dealing with other problems or just trying different things we never sucessfully attached to the HDPE. Our autonomous mode and our robot are being really screwy. After dieing in numerous matches we've come to the conclusion that we need to do something about our wiring and programming mode so we can be up and running at 100% for both Pittsburgh and Chicago in the upcoming weeks. All in all i'm pleased, we did come away with the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award, which we have never won before. I'de also like to thank the guys from 111 for the many suggestions on fixing our robot over the weekend, 547 and 171 for loaning us the many small things we forgot, and team 447 for picking us for the elimation matches (the CIA (Central Indiana Alliance - 447, 45, 1018) had a really good chance, but things just didnt go well).

Next week, Pittsburgh, the week after that a break, and then Chicago. More updates to come!

[Joel Glidden]

I just want to congratulate the Kats on a great regional performance. We had a blast strategizing with you guys in our qualifying match, and you had our teeth chattering before our quarterfinals match.

-Joel
______________________________
Team 356 ~ Enigma ?
Semi-Finalist, St Louis Regional 2003 (Thanks 525 and 16!)

[Jeremy_Mc]

we (1028 -- the übergeeks) did quite well for a rookie (outside of our drive train busting a couple of times), but some of our alliances had some major problems. that's ok though...most of them got them fixed and went on to perform quite well. in one match they disabled us for no reason, claiming our light didn't work (even though i could clearly see it). oh well

the one team i really wish i could've seen perform was 1020. i don't think anyone could've moved them had they gotten on the ramp. if you went by their pit and looked on the underside of their wings, you'd know what i mean.

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert
after adding an extensive amount of latex tubing the arms go up and down with ease.

i noticed that...how much did you guys add!? looked like more than 5 feet! (i actually couldn't tell, but man that was a lot for one spot)

*jeremy

Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc
i noticed that...how much did you guys add!? looked like more than 5 feet! (i actually couldn't tell, but man that was a lot for one spot)

Little more

Anyway to clarify Clark's post:


We had problems all day today. We would make it up the ramp anda then we would get a solid low battery light and a Basic Error on the OI. Around the time this happened, our pump came on right above the HDPE like normal. After much discussion on the way back from St Louis, we believe that the pump somehow contributed and the static electricity from the HDPE, which zapped our robot controller and pin 4 (The reset pin on the programming port) was zapped and reset the robot. Wildstang had a similar problem and many of their teammembers were there scouting this weekend and took the time to come and lend us a hand (thanks guys!) We sat there dead, sometimes we regained control, other times we didnt. This problem was most likely the cause of all of our other problems from the weekend, with exceptions from earlier on Friday. We have a list of ideas on how to fix it that will be ready to try next Thursday in Pittsburg.


Now that I think about it, the times when we didnt have problems, we didnt make it to the top of the ramp. I'll have to check the log book on Monday to verify...

[Amanda Morrison]

Team 45...

I thought that you performed well. Like any good team, you took a problem, and continually worked to make it better. Many times did I run to your pit to find you all elbow-deep in tubing or random robot pieces.

Congratulations on making it to eliminations, and I know you'll be back up and running for the next regional. I'll be looking forward to your performance in Evanston!

[Joel Glidden]

Now that you mention it, we were getting odd low batt lights in St. Louis. I did not notice whether or not there was any correlation between seeing the low batt light and being on the HDPE. But other than that we had no problems with static on the HDPE.

-Joel