General Notes from GLR Field Team

[Btower]

Thanks to Everyone for an Awesome GLR.

Some notes:

Robot Reliabilty was far better this year than in years past but I would like to share a couple of observations from GLR.

1. Many robots lost loaded tetras in the human stations because the arms drifted below the fence once the weight of the tetra was loaded. Remember the robot has no power at this point. I believe there were also penalties assesed at times related to this issue.

2. Penalties were huge in determining the winners of the qualification matches. In the early rounds I'd say it was the deciding factor in about 50% of the matches. Foot faults in the human loading zone were the predominate cause early on, later it shifted to robots not on the zone triangle. Try feelers, brushes etc. to maximize robot contact area. Be very careful of interference while other robots are loading in the human zones. (30pt)

3. Lower that CG. Robots self tipping and/or being easily tipped due high CG's was certainly a factor. When not actively loading or defending get those arms down. Not only can you keep your wheels on the ground, but even an incidental contact with another robot robot when your arm is raised could result in a penalty or disabling. It also is a safety issue, we had a few near misses with robots tipping outside the field and nearly taking out referees and/or one of the kids reloading the self loaders.

4. Secure those batteries and radio receivers.

5. Simple Autonomous works, knocking down side goals goes a long way to "owning" your home row.

Thankfully, we had only a few field technical problems, but we had some very confusing ones with sound signals which will hopefully be resolved by next week.

Other than the car fire in the parking lot, we had a very safe competition, far fewer injuries than the last two years. In fact I don't think we had anything major. Last year we had some nasty cuts and falls.

This years competition requires a lot of venue space, GLR is a relatively large venue, Detroit and others are going to be cramped, please work with the field teams if they come to you about cart sizes.

Any feedback as to what could be improved will be appreciated.

Again, great job to everyone, and thanks to the teams who helped with field teardown.


Cheers,

Ben Tower - Field Manager 05 GLR