VCU COMPETITION STATUS

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

Has any explanation been released about what problem they are having?

they mentioned something about the software for operating the field not working correctly, and they will have it working by tommorow.....specifics i can't tell ya....

[Joe Matt]

No one has a good auton. Only one team has knocked off the trigger ball today. ONE. Also, I can see the hanging bar giving FIRST trouble latter in the game season. Also, the ball shute got stuck once, that can be bad if it happened during the finals!!! Many teams here have bad human players, and an average of 4 balls are in the goals by the end of the game. Only one team has capped the big goal.

Ah, anyway, I'm at VCU, and we have a webcafe now. Sparky will be up soon, so look for us!!!

[Ryan Dognaux]

I was watching the feed earlier, beautiful webcast! Great quality without any lag or distortion.

And don't worry guys... it's the first day of the first week, let the teams get their kinks worked out

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by JosephM

No one has a good auton. Only one team has knocked off the trigger ball today. ONE. Also, I can see the hanging bar giving FIRST trouble latter in the game season. Also, the ball shute got stuck once, that can be bad if it happened during the finals!!! Many teams here have bad human players, and an average of 4 balls are in the goals by the end of the game. Only one team has capped the big goal.

Ah, anyway, I'm at VCU, and we have a webcafe now. Sparky will be up soon, so look for us!!!

The # of balls in the stationary goal is disappointing, if what you say is true. The alliance starts with 6 balls. FOUR is really not an acceptable number, especially when quite a few can be herded by just shoving :/

Are people having issues with auton because their dead reckoning is off or because their positioning system (use of beacons, etc.) is too complicated and has many bugs?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Yan Wang

...The alliance starts with 6 balls. FOUR (in the goal) is really not an acceptable number, especially when quite a few can be herded by just shoving :/

have you tried herding the balls just by pushing them? its not easy

Ive noticed that when the balls are released, most of them end up against the sides or the walls, which will make it difficult to push them towards the corrals

those ball catchers are going to do well

and anyone who can capture the small balls into their machine when they are against the railings or wall ( like us :c)

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

have you tried herding the balls just by pushing them? its not easy

Team 639 driver tryouts required drivers to herd 6 balls (along with other tasks) out of the 12 that were on the field... I was the fastest, collecting them in under 40 seconds. That was the first time I tried herding and it was hard. It definitely got hectic trying to get them in when there weren't many left. I disagree with one of your points though - I found that the balls that were adjacent to the side were the easiest to herd. Those got in first because the edge was a great guide for balls. Freely roaming balls were hard. Nonetheless, 6 balls in < 40 seconds should be done fairly easily in games.

I'll be watching tomorrow to see if there are improvements. Good luck to everyone.

[KenWittlief]

our bot can hold 6 small balls, and sucks them in like a vacuum cleaner sweeping the floor - as soon as the roller touches them it pulls them inside

I think we will be able to get all 18 balls on our side of the field and deliver them easily within 60 seconds.

[Alavinus]

Getting back to VCU, I was a volunteer/ spectator for the day and this is what I saw:

First off- a little mini-rant <rant> Please read the FIRST manual. We, (the inspectors) are going by the sheet and what we know from the manual, along with general updates given at the competition. If an Inspector makes a simple request, like taping all electrical connectors, please comply. We are trying to make sure your robot is safe, we are not being mean. The majority of teams were accomodating but there were a few that tried to bend the rules. I don't want this to turn into a intent debate, but please if it is in the manual- you WILL be held accountable. Just because your design works, or you think it is safe, if it is against the rules it will be disallowed.

Secondly, I know that it is an old call, but please have a memeber of your team at inspection that has read the rules and tried to make the robot comply with them. When I tell you that a CIM motor can not be hooked up to a spike "I know" is not an answer I want to hear.

In conclusion, the inspectors are your friends. Hate the sizing box, Hate the scale, love the inspectors. We don't bite. Really. </rant>

Now for how VCU went: keeping in mind that this was practice, many teams did not have a working autonomous. The teams that did were rare but there was more then one. Also, hanging and small ball control are looking to be pretty important. The herders were having issues with the being able to get the balls to the human player. Some teams had trouble with the lip or just trying to pick out balls to herd (Think shark picking a minnow out of a school).
Very few teams have been able to cap well within the time limit. Also, the successful hangers were rare. Most teams are still attempting to drive around and get those kinks out. The teams that could hang hung very well. We will have to see, but it is looking like small ball control and hanging are important.

[OneAngryDaisy]

Yea, I think one thing the herders greatly underestimated was the lip.. I mean, its not easy to get small balls over, with the balls' elasticity... We also have a small ball sucker (i like to call it an absorber) ~9 balls, it'll be a blast at competitions..


still 2 weeks until chesapeake, aargh

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Alavinus

Now for how VCU went: keeping in mind that this was practice, many teams did not have a working autonomous. The teams that did were rare but there was more then one. Also, hanging and small ball control are looking to be pretty important. The herders were having issues with the being able to get the balls to the human player. Some teams had trouble with the lip or just trying to pick out balls to herd (Think shark picking a minnow out of a school).
Very few teams have been able to cap well within the time limit. Also, the successful hangers were rare. Most teams are still attempting to drive around and get those kinks out. The teams that could hang hung very well. We will have to see, but it is looking like small ball control and hanging are important.

yes thats what i saw when i was watching the broadcast... is there any way you could get the camera man to stop viewing random people behind the first tables bending over to fix stuff under the table.... hahaha it looked great for the first regional good job guys!

[abeD]

Does anyone know if they kept score and if they did what was the highest?
(if they didn't keep score what was around a high score(estimate)?)

[KenWittlief]

they dont keep score during the pratice matches - and it would be misleading anyway

lots of teams dont show up, lots are working out the bugs in auton mode

tomorrow we will see the real stuff and get a feel for how this years game is going to flow

[Tuba4]

I watched about 2 hours of the VCU competition this afternoon. Granted, it was the first day of the first round of regionals, but if things don't improve quickly tomorrow, this game could be very boring for the audience to watch.

During that 2 hours, only 1 bot was able to trip the ball release during autonomous. That means for the vast majority of the matches, not a whole lot happenned during the first 45 seconds or almost half of the match.

I only saw 3 or 4 bots hang. Only 1 time did I see a 2X ball removed and replaced. If this trend holds, very few scores will exceed 70 or 80 points.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Tuba4

I watched about 2 hours of the VCU competition this afternoon. Granted, it was the first day of the first round of regionals, but if things don't improve quickly tomorrow, this game could be very boring for the audience to watch.

During that 2 hours, only 1 bot was able to trip the ball release during autonomous. That means for the vast majority of the matches, not a whole lot happenned during the first 45 seconds or almost half of the match.

I only saw 3 or 4 bots hang. Only 1 time did I see a 2X ball removed and replaced. If this trend holds, very few scores will exceed 70 or 80 points.

I think that the first two weeks of regionals are always ruff, as we go on to the later regionals, teams figure out what to do. Some teams will be playing their second or even third regional and their bots will have improved.

Just give it time, this game will be the most exciting yet.

[Allison K]

I recall at buckeye last year, the practice matches were rather boring (either teams were still fixing stuff or didn't want to give away all their secrets), but the competition turned out great. I think it will be a lot more exciting tomorrow when teams are playing to win.

Allison