Most matches for a robot?

[Nathan Streeter]

There is kind of a 'slippery slope' from just official matches, to also off-season events, to also practice matches at official events, to also practice time. Honestly though, I have no good estimate for how many practice matches we played and how much practice time was on our 'competition' robot vs our 'practice' robot.

This was a great (boring?) season for our team in the pits... Early on we had to add/adjust a few things to tighten our elevator belts, but once tensioned at UMass Dartmouth correctly they were good. After that it was really just the additional features we added.

Originally Posted by Taylor

Wow. That's substantial.
Have you ever considered building more than one robot, perhaps in a way that they could fit in each other and still come within the size/weight limitations, to alleviate wear and maximize match strategy?

It sounds like you remember our 2008 season? Wear was hardly a concern for our robot(s) that year, though...

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

It sounds like you remember our 2008 season? Wear was hardly a concern for our robot(s) that year, though...

Man, how many bumpers and bumper structures did Speed Racer destroy throughout the year?

[logank013]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

We could tell the wear and tear was getting to that robot in Archimedes - in fact, we could HEAR it. It seemed like a few of your quals matches were suffering because of it.

I mean the Rack and Pinion lift was ALWAYS loud but it was really bad when you could hear it from high up in the stands in a big stadium... haha. Did 135 have much wear? From watching Archimedes, it didn't seem like much. Either that or you guys adapted to it well.

[tindleroot]

Originally Posted by logank013

I mean the Rack and Pinion lift was ALWAYS loud but it was really bad when you could hear it from high up in the stands in a big stadium... haha. Did 135 have much wear? From watching Archimedes, it didn't seem like much. Either that or you guys adapted to it well.

No, we didn't get much wear and tear, thanks to our AWESOME build team. They built one of the most robust robots we have ever fielded.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Man, how many bumpers and bumper structures did Speed Racer destroy throughout the year?

Touche; I'd forgotten about Speed Racer's front bumper! The front frame backing the pool noodle bumper was probably half the frame's weight when we finished reinforcing it (after it broke repeatedly)...

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by JB987

Pretty sure this was a great year for robot longevity, given the lack of robot on robot action. Now 150 matches in a year like 2014, 2013 etc...that really would be quite a feat

I should mention that Becca's frame was broken in the finals of the very first regional at Inland Empire (and lost a few plastic arms along the way starting at Chezy Champs).

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by page2067

If this is about a robot - it should not count practice robot matches.

Yes, this is about a single robot and its wear and tear. Still looking to see if anyone has more than 151.

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by EricH

Practice matches need to be considered too, actually. See "fatigue life"--fatigue doesn't care if the cycles the material has gone through are in quals, elims, shop testing, or practice matches. What it cares about is, "I've gone through X,000 cycles, I'm about to *OUCH!* break." (Or has gone through some extra stress, but that's another topic.)

There's no official way to count practice matches or testing--only recorded "official" matches are a useful common standard.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

There's no official way to count practice matches or testing--only recorded "official" matches are a useful common standard.

Then IRI and other offseason events shouldn't be considered since they are not "official" events.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Then IRI and other offseason events shouldn't be considered since they are not "official" events.

The Blue Alliance seems to think they are legit enough to record and put alongside the rest of your season.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

The Blue Alliance seems to think they are legit enough to record and put alongside the rest of your season.

But if we are trying to determine "Which robot played the most matches?", we're really determining "Which robot happened to play at offseason events that happened to be recorded?". I don't think a match at MARC is more tough on a robot than a match at R2OC. Nor do I think an average offseason qualification match is tougher on a robot than a practice match at an average regional.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume The Blue Alliance puts up every event they get information from. I don't believe they only put the events they feel are 'legit' or 'offical' events on their site.

[page2067]

Originally Posted by EricH

Practice matches need to be considered too, actually. See "fatigue life"--fatigue doesn't care if the cycles the material has gone through are in quals, elims, shop testing, or practice matches. What it cares about is, "I've gone through X,000 cycles, I'm about to *OUCH!* break." (Or has gone through some extra stress, but that's another topic.)

My comment was assuming practice matches on practice robot - not same as comp robot - practice matches on comp post season could be considered - in any event like all scouting to each their own, to judge of what a valuable metric is.

It may be interesting if others shared how many matches it took to find wear out modes? After early failure modes identified.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by page2067

My comment was assuming practice matches on practice robot - not same as comp robot - practice matches on comp post season could be considered - in any event like all scouting to each their own, to judge of what a valuable metric is.

It may be interesting if others shared how many matches it took to find wear out modes? After early failure modes identified.

Practice matches on the practice robot, right, those shouldn't count.

But the 3-6 practice matches per official event that teams get--with their competition robot--probably should be counted, if there is any way to determine those (and whether the robot showed up, or went in via filler line). Probably the easiest way is to add 3 matches per event that has practice matches (or whatever the proper number is for districts/CMP)--anything more doesn't count, anything less we'll assume you spent on the practice field or testing in the pit.

[page2067]

Certainly, with practice matches at competitions considered, we passed 150 - but I am sure others go on further too.

But what can we learn from machines going 120+ matches - is there a wear out plateau - if you run x number matches then you can be fairly confident of reliability?

Or are we really still in prototype mode... still learning embryonic failure modes? even after 120+ matches...

I think in the past couple of years of running a least 100 matches that we uncovered a great proportion of issues, but cannot quantify that very well.

And cannot yet say if we found all issues or still learning.

[Mark McLeod]

120 matches x 150 minutes per match = 5 hours of driving time
It doesn't seem like that's enough testing to get all the bugs out.

It's somewhat odd to think that one solid day of driving practice at home before bagging would be equal to an entire season of competition matches.
Without the shoving, pushing, yelling, screaming, and contention for game piece stresses that real competition brings.