For all of the teams who didn't pick us......

[Tyler Olds]

Well after a tough time at nationals, we decided that after the alliance selections (since we didn't get picked) to go out side and see how much our robot can pull.

Here are the 3 different qualities of the 5 min video (the 2 lower quality ones are kinda bad).

2003 Tobor VI Truck Pulling best quality (221 Mb)

2003 Tobor VI Truck Pulling, Windows Media format. (10.6 Mb)

2003 Tobor VI Truck Pulling, Windows Real format. (13.4 Mb)

P.S. The the trailer and the F250 weigh over 7000 lbs!!!

[Jnadke]

Wow... impressive... you overcame static friction.

Torque is a function of rotational mass and acceleration. Just as long as you don't exceed 40 Amps, it's just a matter of finding a balance between momentum and top speed. When you find that balance, you can pull just about anything with wheels on it.


Every year I see teams asking, "Why didn't we get picked." They try blaming someone else by making it sound as if it's the responsibility of other teams to pick them, when in reality it is their own fault. I feel no sympathy for any team that does this. You should not rely on other teams to pick you. That is the purpose of seeding. The reality is that you seeded 65th out of 73. This could mean several things, including:
1) Your robot wasn't built for the game and/or broke.
2) You had a bad (inexperienced) driver
3) You had a bad (inexperienced) strategist
4) You didn't sell yourself well enough

http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/tesla/first/videos.html
The real link for the videos.

[Gadget470]

Jnadke:

Placement doesn't always represent robot or team quality. Perfect example is my team this year. At regionals, we had a few poor alliances but our good ones were great. We ended up placing 15th at GLR, and were not picked. We qualified for nationals on Leadership in Control. Every match there had some kind of problem. All but one match (when we were intentionally flipped and our breaker box came loose when we self-righted) we were on top of the hill. We shoved our way to the top against some of the toughest competitors, while our alliances jumped off the top at the last second.

We lost most matches by under 25 points, I think only one loss was more than 25. We ended up placing 48th I think and again were not picked. We were a powerhouse of torque and traction but never saw an elimination match.

Maybe it was not selling ourselves enough, who knows.


As for the overcoming static friction, that is a great feat with such a large amount of weight. Not every robot could pull the truck and trailer, especially on an obscure surface that the bot wasn't designed for. I'm glad we never had a pushing match with 93, don't know whom would have won.

Being picked for an alliance isn't the most important thing in FIRST though, I really realized that this year. (Last year, at all 3 regionals my old team was in elims, twice picked, once picking). I learned a lot this year and had a great time in the 15 matches I was operator for.

I made a lot of sacrifices for what on the outside looks like little reward this year. To Tyler, and other non-elimination round teams/people: I hope you enjoyed the competition and aren't truly sad that you did not compete in eliminations. FIRST has a lot to offer if you want it. Don't just focus on the competition itself, thats one of the smallest peices of the FIRST puzzle

[Mike Schroeder]

yes in this competition i have learned that rank doesnt mean much, very rarely do you see the #1 seed win anything

for example in 2000 we were 272 at the end of qual. rounds saturday. but yet we were still picked, and we won,

this year, we had many poor alliances at nationals this year, and yes we still came up on top. so please, this is somthing my team does, and is a suggestion i make to every other team, do not focus on ranks, ranking means verylittle, Strategy is Key, if you see a low ranked robot with alot of ability and you are "ranked" take a chance, you will be suprised how the under doges just tend to be the dark horse and win it all

[dez250]

Originally posted by "Big Mike"
yes in this competition i have learned that rank doesnt mean much, very rarely do you see the #1 seed win anything

for example in 2000 we were 272 at the end of qual. rounds saturday. but yet we were still picked, and we won,

this year, we had many poor alliances at nationals this year, and yes we still came up on top. so please, this is somthing my team does, and is a suggestion i make to every other team, do not focus on ranks, ranking means verylittle, Strategy is Key, if you see a low ranked robot with alot of ability and you are "ranked" take a chance, you will be suprised how the under doges just tend to be the dark horse and win it all

I cant agree more with big mike there, rank doesnt always mean you are the best or worst, sometimes its just a robot that cant do anythign gets put in an alliance with all good teams wins each match and goes to the top rankings but still they are a robot that cant do anything and wont get far unless with people that can support them.

~Mike

[AlbertW]

At SVR we had lots of problems. Our AI kept failing, we got flipped alot, etc. We ended up seeded 27th out of 46 after winning every other match the first day, and then losing one and winning 2 the second day. our QPs were really low.

We ended up drafting some colorful flyers that explained our bot, our AI, and our strategy in general, and handed them out to the teams, we cheered really loud, and generally made ourselves known.

We ended up being chosen cause (i think) we sold ourselves pretty well.

[Steve W]

Team 188 will attest to that. Our team was ranked 22 / 45 at West Michigan but we were picked 3rd on abilities. We won there. At championships we were ranked 52 and were the 4th team picked. We lost in the quarterfinals due to a refs call (not complaining). We always believe that if we do things well and and consistantly people will notice and if we compliment the alliance we would be chosen. Good teams scout well and can see what others do. You can be the best robot but if you don't fit into other teams stategy you won't be picked. There are alot of teams that do really well and don't get picked. Remember that doing something well is a reward in itself. When I saw our robot perform and come in with low rankings I was proud of what we had accomplished. Being picked just added decorations on a fantastic cake. I am just a rookie mentor but I was extremely proud of our team and their accomplishments this year. We started out very rough but have improved as time went on. I am really looking forward to continued growth and enthusiasm next year. Win or lose the match, with a good attitude you are always a winner.

[dez250]

see ranking isnt everything!

~Mike

[DougHogg]

I like the way Battlecry@WPI is run. (I heard about it in Houston.)

They have 36 teams in the competition, and the 12 leaders pick one team each.

The remaining 12 teams are drawn by lottery.

Everyone goes into the elimination rounds.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Woa Tyler your robot is crazy.. that's pretty cool pulling a car and truck like that...

We were ranked like.. 20 something at VCU this year and were drafted.. so it doesn't really mean a whole lot. It's the robot that sells your team, not your rank. If your robot goes out there and consistantly performs well.. then you have a good chance of being picked. However this isn't always the case...I'm sure some teams pick based purly on rank.. even though that's an incredibly stupid thing to do.

[Jeff Waegelin]

My team has never had any qualms with picking lower-ranked teams. We've been in that spot before, so we always try to make the best evaluation of all the teams. We don't care where a team is seeded, so long as they bring something valuable to the alliance.

[Brant Bowen]

Sorry to interupt your converstaions about drafting, but could i get some information on Appleton's robot. Like what motors did you guy's drive with and what were you gear ratios? Also have you guys tested your torque at all?

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Jnadke
Wow... impressive... you overcame static friction.

Torque is a function of rotational mass and acceleration. Just as long as you don't exceed 40 Amps, it's just a matter of finding a balance between momentum and top speed. When you find that balance, you can pull just about anything with wheels on it.


Every year I see teams asking, "Why didn't we get picked." They try blaming someone else by making it sound as if it's the responsibility of other teams to pick them, when in reality it is their own fault. I feel no sympathy for any team that does this. You should not rely on other teams to pick you. That is the purpose of seeding. The reality is that you seeded 65th out of 73. This could mean several things, including:
1) Your robot wasn't built for the game and/or broke.
2) You had a bad (inexperienced) driver
3) You had a bad (inexperienced) strategist
4) You didn't sell yourself well enough

http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/tesla/first/videos.html
The real link for the videos.

For a former person on our team , i would't think that you would really degrade us as much as this post seems here. Also I do not think you fully know what you are talking about with the qualifying stuff, we had a good driver, we sold our selves to the level that we could, our bot was built for the game and broke once at the championship because a chair fell off, and our strategist people (one of the two is me) has done strategy for 3 years now and is pretty attuned to it. Perhaps if our graduates taught their predecessors more of their skills, our bot would have done better under your theory.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Brant Bowen
Sorry to interupt your converstaions about drafting, but could i get some information on Appleton's robot. Like what motors did you guy's drive with and what were you gear ratios? Also have you guys tested your torque at all?

I will leave this to somebody else to answer, but i can tell you that we used two chips on a tranny with a tank style drive train, i think our gear ratios were 48:1 and 12:1 however I will ask other members of my team about that.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin
My team has never had any qualms with picking lower-ranked teams. We've been in that spot before, so we always try to make the best evaluation of all the teams. We don't care where a team is seeded, so long as they bring something valuable to the alliance.

/me think back to 2002 at regionals and somewhat nationals (what a good year it was eh Jeff?

btw I know i posted 3 times which is spamming however somebody posted while i was writing one of them so oh well.

Also thank you Ryan for the compliment.