pic: FIRST Team 1987 Conveyor Output

[Travis Hoffman]

4269's ability to grab containers, noodle them, and cap them on 1987's 4-stacks (along with smart assistance from 2399) almost led them to a Buckeye finals berth. In the end, they lost to the 5413/48/291 alliance by a single average point in the semifinals, which is essentially 2 more scored totes.

It took them just a bit too long in the semis to get really good at what they were doing, but at least they went out guns-a-blazin', as evidenced by this performance in Semifinals Match 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_246QNFW2Kk

[Ichlieberoboter]

Nice job! Man, if you could get paired with a team that could cap stacks of 6, you'd be set. It's pretty hard, though. My team can cap stacks of 5, but 6 is tough.

[GKrotkov]

Do you have to start on the near platform? I can see some problems if your capper can't see and doesn't have a camera.

It's a really impressive problem to be dealing with.

[Mastonevich]

Travis - It was priceless watching your teams reaction when you got your ticket to champs. Congratulations

We are\were hoping there are some six stack toppers out there, but they are probably not plentiful due to the engineering challenge of said task. We suspect there are many more 5 stack toppers available.

We do have a camera watching the far the side of the field (toward the step). We don't use our driver station display for our drivers so it can be faced to alliance partners if necessary. I don't think we used the camera in that fashion yet.

That being said, 4269's drivers were amazing. As far as we know the only thing they could see was the top of the RCs as they were placing them. Apparently it works.

[SpencerW]

If anyone is interested you can check out our fully autonomous code check out this link https://github.com/FRCTeam1987/Robot2015

[Rob Stehlik]

This is a thing of beauty. I so wish our robots could play together...

[JohnFogarty]

I'm confused why you didn't have the "capping" team cap your stack of 4 while it was still in your robot, then finish it off to be a 6 stack.

I love your design nonetheless. I wish that it had been a more viable strategy to use as well.

[jgwentworth96]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

I'm confused why you didn't have the "capping" team cap your stack of 4 while it was still in your robot, then finish it off to be a 6 stack.

I love your design nonetheless. I wish that it had been a more viable strategy to use as well.

We had very limited time to practice that with 4269 and, during our short test of that strategy, we determined that it was too unstable to be worth the risk of a stack falling (and potentially breaking the conveyor).

[Nuwanda]

Very impressive! I've only seen one conveyor belt robot in person and it didn't work nearly as successfully as yours.

On another note, even though the robot is fully autonomous, do you have driver operated controls in case something goes wrong?

[jgwentworth96]

Originally Posted by Nuwanda

Very impressive! I've only seen one conveyor belt robot in person and it didn't work nearly as successfully as yours.

On another note, even though the robot is fully autonomous, do you have driver operated controls in case something goes wrong?

We do! In fact, due to the complexity of the systems on the robot and the number of commands required to run it manually, we made an engraved button box with buttons and switches for each command for the driver to use.

[Levi Madden]

I did the math, and it looks like our 5 stack of 6, plus recycles bins and litter from a pro capper is worth 210 points. A third robot could build 2 stacks of 6 with recycle bins and litter using the landfill, this is worth an additional 84 points. Throwing the remaining 3 noodles from the human player adds another 12 points. This is the most ideal match imaginable for our team. Although the third robot could do more than 2 stacks, there would only be 2 remaining bins on the step for them anyway. This match totals a score of 306 points. This match is likely to never happen, the chances of getting a robot that can cap 5 stacks of 6 and then get another robot that does 2 landfill stacks with recycle bins and litter is near impossible. If this were to happen during a qualifying match, 40 points of co-op could be added.I l also did the math for highest possible score, and based on the points of field elements, the highest possible score in this game is 426, that would use every recycle bin, piece of litter and tote available to a single alliance, and a co-op stack. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Levi Madden]

In case anyone wanted to see our CAD, we uploaded PDFs of all our parts here.

[cglrcng]

Ours would no doubt love to do 2 tote 1 RC w/ Litter caps on top of all of those stacks! Only we'd have to cross the top 2 totes long across the short (perpendicular to the wall, and set well timed to your push out of the wall/next stack), from either side except the first -or end stack, RC's could be laid down or upright. Let us just hope to be in the same division. Looks like the push of stacks is quite smooth enough that stuff added on top would be very stable indeed.

Add a can stealer (or 2 ;-), and a wall builder the alliance will be. Win all 4 RC's(42X6=252cap yours+42 Stack our 1st one on the other platform, then just cap your wall out w/ 2 totes and littered RC's+3rd bot just 6 or more points?+they help litter the cans too=300+ Points?

Of course you cannot always count on winning all or even many of the eventual nuclear powered can wars, but it would sure be fun to try once.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

All I can say is ... Wow, what a beautiful machine.

Very well done.

[runneals]

This is such a cool idea. Many people have said this game is too "warehousy", but I think you brought together many ideas from a warehouse that not many other teams thought of or have tried to build. When you think about it, warehouses use that stuff for a reason (making things more efficient, which they are). Keep rockin the efficiency! (Almost wondering if you have industrial engineers on your team

Kinda makes me think of the Robonauts 2013 full court shooter.