2015 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[ASmith1675]

1. Because of the open sizing rules and lack of robot-to-robot interaction it opened up a massive space for unique and very different robot designs. Tether bots (not the ramps -- the electrical kind), conveyor bots, and robots that were basically stack manufacturing facilities all stretched the limits of design. Which was very nice to see.

2. 8 division Einstein. This was awesome to see, even without being at the event. Being able to see all the robots that would normally have been in the division finals on the big stage was really great, and gave a lot of team some exposure that they may not have normally had.

3. QA ranking system (for qualifying rounds only). I'm going to list this as a positive because I believe it worked very well in this game. (Though I am not convinced it would work well for all games). The rankings at the end of qualifications felt more or less correct for a given event.

4. New control system and components. Our team had what felt like a very smooth transition from the cRIO to the RoboRIO, and had FAR fewer problems with the new system. In addition, the new motor controllers were a welcome upgrade. We used the Victor SPs and (as far as I know) did not have a failure all year.