Thoughts on driving in FIRST Stronghold

[Strykker]

Originally Posted by arc25565

We were having many problems with vision especially when coming through the sally port. However, we were able to borrow flexible landscaping flags from another team and attached them to the back of the robot. This was immensely helpful in seeing our robots position on the other side of the field. I have included a picture below. Thanks again team 4627.

We had a similar solution to that problem. We went with 1/8" polycarb pieces that we cut long enough to provide visibility while also attaching them in such a way as to not extend beyond 15" while crossing the low bar. We also color coded them with gaff tape, yellow on one and blue on the other, so that our driver could easily see what orientation the robot was in.

As a bonus, it turns out they actually gave a lot of character to our robot and the team loved that unique and simple feature. We were actually able to give out some of our spare Wigglydoodads (as they were later officially christened) to other teams at champs as well.

[samfruth]

Vision flags are the best thing known to driver-kind. That is all.

[NShep98]

Well, it was my second year on the team and my first as a driver.

Vision was not as much of an issue, having an arm that can raise and lower as we need it to.

Things that did cause trouble include:

• Driving over boulders
• Trying to see past our own castle to defend (on the left driver station)
• Actually getting the drawbridge and sally port open (without dislodging our climbing hook)
• Lining up to climb and doing it in time
• Those darn dividers getting in the way.
• The wear and tear of being the designated "defense-runner-overer"

Things that were fun include:

• Running into everyone to keep them from shooting
• Every single time we ran over a defense like it was flat ground (minus the flying part)
• Getting those perfect partners that actually do what they say they will
• The one scale we finally got to work

The negatives list is longer, but I genuinely loved this game.

[Gravity]

We had some trouble with backing over balls and vision from the taller defenses. Other than that it was a lot of fun getting to play aggressive defense .

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Gravity

We had some trouble with backing over balls and vision from the taller defenses. Other than that it was a lot of fun getting to play aggressive defense .

Seconded . As a drive coach, I learned camera poles are great for making strategic decisions.

[Sohaib]

Not as bad as I originally thought after watching the game reveal - visibility atleast. I remember one game, we chose a draw bridge as a defense, and I couldn't see a good quarter of the field. The nice thing was, we planned for this, with a really long controller wire, and more often than not I was walking around the full width of our driver station.

We used a camera only for going back through the drawbridge.

My operator would also be watching the robot, and let me know if I don't notice something. Also, our robot, in the configuration it would be in throughout most of the match, can be seen over the sally port, which was actually designed in.

One of the biggest inconveniences were the boulders, driving around them, having them in awkward positions, trying not to incur tech fouls accidentally taking a boulder over during a crossing.

Hard to play defense, you don't really know when bumpers are over the vertical projection of the outer works if they are anywhere near it, or in the neutral zone.

The one use for a spy I saw personally - not for us, but for say an outerworks shooter, was for the spy to give a signal (simple as a thumbs up) when the bumpers are in the outerworks - hence the robot is protected by defense. This did not apply to our strategy.

Edit: Oh, and the batter dividers were always fun

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by Sohaib

Not as bad as I originally thought after watching the game reveal - visibility atleast. I remember one game, we chose a draw bridge as a defense, and I couldn't see a good quarter of the field. The nice thing was, we planned for this, with a really long controller wire, and more often than not I was walking around the full width of our driver station.

I'd be careful of long controller wires. T11 of the manual states that if you are more than 1/2 a player station away from your own player station as an operator it's a yellow card.

[TheModMaster8]

Being the driver this year, not having a camera was one of the hardest things, the Plexiglass killed me every flipping time.