Most Effective Robot EVER?

[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by Knufire

To insert a robot into this conversation that hasn't been mentioned yet, CD 2000.

Is there any footage of this robot in its dominant form? I've been looking for years, but the only footage I've been able to find is of the match in which they broke a weld and were upset at the world championship. I've been hearing for years about how much of a dominant gamechanger this robot was for FRC, and would love to see it in action at the top of its game.

[llamadon]

Originally Posted by The other Gabe

Interestingly, by the time champs rolled around, 1425 was actually better than 2169 (I'm looking at OPR here, not at how far each team went, since 2169's alliance did beat 1425's).

of course, 118 beat out both of them on the OPR scale, so what does that tell you about Feeder shooter vs cycling

I'd argue for 469 or 987 in 2013, though I think the beauty of that game was that it was literally impossible to be a complete powerhouse (my team tried to do everything. we failed miserably )

I was very impressed with 1425's shooter on galileo. They were very slippery on the defense, and had the ability to strafe towards the pyrimid when being defended by a blocker and shoot through the pyrimid very accurately. Favorite robot on that field by far. They even toasted us in a qual match.

Originally Posted by Edxu

Every year in the preseason, we talk about a chokehold strategy, and every year, we show video of Team 71 2002. Easily the most effectively executed strategy/robot in FRC.

However, that's far before my time, so I'm going to go ahead with 2169 King Tec and their monstrous FCS in 2013. Their shooter only took ~2 shots to dial in perfectly, and unless you threw up a 7' blocker in front of them, you could only watch as discs piled into their opponent's goal. Given maybe 10 extra seconds in teleop and playing undefended, I'm sure that they could shoot all 45 discs into the opponent's goal, a stat that no other team can challenge.

1114 in 2015 is a close second IMO, they built stacks from the landfill or the HP station (RAMP RAMP RAMP) like no other team could, and they had a very effective cangrabber at CMP as well.

Our robot was at its peak performance at the denver regional, there we had the possibility of doing the 45, but as the shooter was used so much there was some deteriation going on to champs which we could never rectify completely. The thing had a knack for jamming/tipping right at the most critical of times. IE. finals on galileo. It doesn't feel as bad when you lose to the eventual world champs though .

I'm making a plug for 610 here just for the fact that the could go 6ish cycles regardless of the defense that was played on them. Now that was truely impressive.

[Chief Hedgehog]

KINGTeC's 2013 Robot was incredible - until MN State in 2013 when a rookie team made 2169 cycle

No doubt that 2175 and 2052 won that one outright...

[Chris is me]

2169's 2013 robot seems really out of place in this poll. There are several 2013 robots that I would say were more dominant than 2169, certainly more flexible. 2169 was a good full court shooter, but they weren't THAT much better at it than any number of other full court shooters, and they obviously we're quite limited when forced to cycle. To be quite honest I don't understand why everyone is talking about them like they were some kind of game breaker.

The best 2013 robot was probably 469, who excelled at all aspects of the game except for full pyramid climbing. The flexibility of their driver being able to switch from full court shooting to cycling on the fly, sneaking off full court shots when undefended and cycling while defended, complete with floor pick up and multiple autonomous modes, made them probably the most dangerous robot at the Championship.

[pfreivald]

Objectively I'd say 71 in 2002, but as my then-team 827 got totally owned by the 71 2001 robot, subjectively I'd say 71 2001. We latched onto a goal and then got dragged around for two minutes as if we weren't even there, and there wasn't a darn thing we could do about it.

[Peter Matteson]

1998 - Team 47 Chief Delphi

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

2169's 2013 robot seems really out of place in this poll. There are several 2013 robots that I would say were more dominant than 2169, certainly more flexible. 2169 was a good full court shooter, but they weren't THAT much better at it than any number of other full court shooters, and they obviously we're quite limited when forced to cycle. To be quite honest I don't understand why everyone is talking about them like they were some kind of game breaker.

The best 2013 robot was probably 469, who excelled at all aspects of the game except for full pyramid climbing. The flexibility of their driver being able to switch from full court shooting to cycling on the fly, sneaking off full court shots when undefended and cycling while defended, complete with floor pick up and multiple autonomous modes, made them probably the most dangerous robot at the Championship.

I love that we still don't have a consensus on who the best robot of that year was. It just goes to show how great of a game Ultimate Ascent was.

The best disc-scoring robots were 469 and 987, who were relatively equal, with 987 having the edge during autonomous and 469 having the edge during teleop.

254 and 1986 were the only robots that year with both 7-disc autonomous modes and 30 point climbs, and both were also excellent in teleop, although 254's consistency left something to be desired sometimes.

1114 and 2056 excelled at specific roles, and I'd argue that they both built the ideal robot for what they were trying to do that year.

If I were the #1 seed, and I had the option of choosing any of these robots, I don't know who I would select. It would obviously depend on what my robot could do, but it would be a difficult, difficult choice.

Interestingly enough, only one of the robots listed above made Einstein that year.

[HolyLandBrand]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

2169's 2013 robot seems really out of place in this poll. There are several 2013 robots that I would say were more dominant than 2169, certainly more flexible. 2169 was a good full court shooter, but they weren't THAT much better at it than any number of other full court shooters, and they obviously we're quite limited when forced to cycle. To be quite honest I don't understand why everyone is talking about them like they were some kind of game breaker.

If we are talking about 2169 in 2013, I'd argue more for 2052 in 2013. They were one of the most accurate cylers ever, could switch to full court shooting in a matter of seconds and shoot quickly, and had a quick 10 pt hang. Highly underrated robot that year.

But I agree with the overall consensus that 469 was the most effective bot in 2013.

[bam-bam]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

I love that we still don't have a consensus on who the best robot of that year was. It just goes to show how great of a game Ultimate Ascent was.

The best disc-scoring robots were 469 and 987, who were relatively equal, with 987 having the edge during autonomous and 469 having the edge during teleop.

254 and 1986 were the only robots that year with both 7-disc autonomous modes and 30 point climbs, and both were also excellent in teleop, although 254's consistency left something to be desired sometimes.

1114 and 2056 excelled at specific roles, and I'd argue that they both built the ideal robot for what they were trying to do that year.

If I were the #1 seed, and I had the option of choosing any of these robots, I don't know who I would select. It would obviously depend on what my robot could do, but it would be a difficult, difficult choice.

Interestingly enough, only one of the robots listed above made Einstein that year.

Heck, a case could be made for 842, who was capable of doing everything that year IIRC. They weren't perfect nor the best, but they were a swiss knife out there sometimes.

[JABot67]

There have been a select few robots that have satisfied the following criteria:

1. Won all of their events, including the World Championship
2. Were either the #1 alliance captain or first overall pick at all of their events

While I'm not saying this list is contains, objectively, the most effective robots ever, it is clear that they were dominant. And to someone like me who heavily values event wins and high seedings over more "soft" achievements like being highly effective in a match or two here or there, these robots have most effectively fulfilled the game challenge.

1678 in 2015
254 in 2014 (Waterloo #2 alliance captain; probably should have been first overall pick)
254 in 2011 (Galileo #2 alliance captain; probably should have been first overall pick)
67 in 2009
1114 in 2008 (Midwest #3 alliance captain; probably was or should have been first overall pick)

Honorable Mentions:
118 in 2015 (#2 alliance captain at Dallas; #1 alliance captain 148 chose 987 and lost to 118 in the finals)
469 in 2010 (soooooooooo close!)

[llamadon]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

KINGTeC's 2013 Robot was incredible - until MN State in 2013 when a rookie team made 2169 cycle

No doubt that 2175 and 2052 won that one outright...

The shooter was broken our very last match at champs from a tip, which is why we were not nearly as competitive at state. If we FCS'd we would have made ~60% of the shots in that condition tops.

[CalTran]

I think it's incredibly telling that one of the robots in the running competed over a decade ago (Coming up on nearly 15 years ago actually), only exists in stories and a few grainy videos, and yet is still as ubiquitous as it is today.

My vote is for the 2002 BEAST.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Originally Posted by bam-bam

Heck, a case could be made for 842, who was capable of doing everything that year IIRC. They weren't perfect nor the best, but they were a swiss knife out there sometimes.

Thanks for the shoutout. That was my last year as a student and although it is one of our team's favorite robots, it was probably one of our least effective ones in recent years. It was super over complicated and we spent so much time fixing rather than iterating and practicing with it. It was an attempt to be a utility arm robot like 67 in 2012 but we didn't focus on making it as simple as possible. For some reason we also neglected to think of gravity as a valid way to load the frisbees. Overall it's the simple concept of being the jack of all trades and master of none that we fell into and it showed on the field and during alliance selections.

If we could do it over, we would likely have made a robot like 610 or 1986.

[BenHildy]

Originally Posted by CalTran

I think it's incredibly telling that one of the robots in the running competed over a decade ago (Coming up on nearly 15 years ago actually), only exists in stories and a few grainy videos, and yet is still as ubiquitous as it is today.

I know and totally agree! The early days of FIRST truly put out some amazing design ideas, many of which have been limited with today's countless regulations and build rules. I still gawk at designs like 111 Wildstang in 2004, or to go wayyyy back, Texas Instruments' robot in 1994. For some reason I am amazed by the execution of this design, and am extremely entertained by watching it.

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Is there any footage of this robot in its dominant form? I've been looking for years, but the only footage I've been able to find is of the match in which they broke a weld and were upset at the world championship. I've been hearing for years about how much of a dominant gamechanger this robot was for FRC, and would love to see it in action at the top of its game.

Here is a video of them albeit they don't appear as dominant in that particular match.