New Team Not Using Camera

[Charly]

My team is probably heading towards the same conclusion. We're already short-staffed as far as people who know what they're doing. So getting the really cool stuff up and running will probably take longer than we have.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Charly

My team is probably heading towards the same conclusion. We're already short-staffed as far as people who know what they're doing. So getting the really cool stuff up and running will probably take longer than we have.

Last year we had one of the most effective auto modes around. We had at least four different ways to get on the platform. We also had other autonomous programs we never used. Some of our programs had a delay so we could let our partner go across our path without interference. All were dead reckoning. One of them we call "Mars Rock". Guess what it does? That's right, the robot sits there waiting for Opportunity to come along.

If nothing else, drive forward into your opponents zone and park in a strategic place. While some robots will be able to deal with a robot parked in front of them, most probably will not. If you are playing defense then at least you are better positioned than if you stayed put. This requires only a minimal effort on the part of the programmer. No other hardware is involved if you use dead reckoning.

There are ways to score tetras without vision. One of our mentors has a complete distrust of all sensors, so we have come up with several "fall-back" strategies on what to do if we can't get vision to work for us. Some of them can be accomplished with dead reckoning alone.

The bottom line is that there are only so many robot seconds out there on the field. Just sitting there doing nothing during autonomous wastes 4% of them. That means your alliance is going to have to work at least 8% harder to catch up during the rest of the match.

Why start at a disadvantage?

ChrisH

[663.keith]

sometimes not having an autonomous mode may be very helpful. in 2003 (Stack attack) we did not have a very good autonomous mode. during one match the casters on our robot were not positioned right and during autonomous mode our robot ran against a wall and fell on its side. We were dead for the rest of the match. I would say a team should consider some sort of autonomous mode that at least moves your robot down the field so you don't need to wast the teleoperated mode time.

although it would seem in practical, couldn't a team potentially take one of the magnetic tetras off, and then stack it? This would give a maximum autonomous mode point value of 37

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by 663.keith

although it would seem in practical, couldn't a team potentially take one of the magnetic tetras off, and then stack it? This would give a maximum autonomous mode point value of 37

Yes, you are correct.

[Collmandoman]

max auto = capping center~ then you have 5 tetras left-- capping your back center - capping your opponets corners and the other 2 in the middle..
6*3=18 + 6*10= 60 78 points
190 will do it