Less Interest in Robots in the pits this year?

[spears312]

In doing a lot of scouting for our team I got to ask questions and got asked a few about our robot. While I did notice a lot of people checking out our robot (chrome = attraction) less than half actually asked questions. The questions that were asked, mainly by scouts, were general questions about the performance of the robot, rarely were there any asked about technical aspects or our robot (which were usually directed toward our manipulator).

As for asking questions my self, I often chose to ask general performance questions, not technical. I did ask a few, and I admit I would have liked to asked more technical stuff, but the fast pace I often had to work at didn't allow me the time to do so.

Although I this was my first real year around the pits, I would suppose the lack of questions was based on three factors
1. Similar robot designs, and mostly the same two gear boxes (FIRST and AM's)
2. The usually quick turn around time on matches.
3. On top of the quick turn around time, there were also two more teams to research per match.

I can't say which team number set up is better, but I at least hope next year, that I will find more time to ask questions.

[JackN]

In our pit the interest wasn't on the robot but more on the Dynomometer, a device we developed to check the speed and power of robots.

[Lil' Lavery]

Like my father so obviously pointed out, 116 did have a unique drive train (and control box for that matter), and we did receive a number of in depth questions about both.
Because of the 3v3 format, you had to visit 33% more pits per match (which the number of matches also went up with the 3v3 format), allowing you less time on Friday and Saturday to scout and talk in depth. The people who were just "browsing" the pits, and not scouting did tend to stop by and ask questions.
The disturbing part was that a few of the scouts I tried to explain the drive system to when they asked about it (and not just me, when any of our team members tried to explain it to them) seemed not to be able to comprehend how it works. But thankfully that was just a couple.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The disturbing part was that a few of the scouts I tried to explain the drive system to when they asked about it (and not just me, when any of our team members tried to explain it to them) seemed not to be able to comprehend how it works. But thankfully that was just a couple.

What is so hard to explain? The AndyMark omniwheels are mounted horizontally. When they spin really, really fast (>120,000rpm) they create a 0.116" cushion of air under them and the robot becomes a hovercraft. The magnetic torquers on orthogonal axes of the robot align with the magnetic field of the earth to provide orientation. Propulsion is gained by modulating the frequencies of the torquers, generating a net repulsive force against the north pole, which allows the robot hovercraft to move anywhere on the field in a north-south direction. For east-west movement, we take advantage of the coriolis forces of the Earth's rotation.

There, that wasn't so hard, was it?

(at least that is how I think it works...)

(sorry, tongue is still stuck in cheek)

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by dlavery

What is so hard to explain? The AndyMark omniwheels are mounted horizontally. When they spin really, really fast (>120,000rpm)

Wow! I'd really like to see video of an AndyMark omniwheel at 120krpm! Might need to do the test inside some thick concrete walls...

But the results should be spectacular!

[the_short1]

at GLR a lot of teams asked us about our omni wheels.. and our boom.. . not many teams used telescoping booms like we did.. the only realy twin of our arm is team 66.. and theirs kicks our but since it can go vertical .. their robot is like the non rookie version of ours.. and im still sadened how they broke their cable in autom '..

anyways.. at champs... ide have to disagree.. .team 67s drive train. and team..??with those yellow mecanum wheels for straffing.... thsoe were REALLY unique and i saw a lot of people asking questions.. and a lot of other robots too. ...just those two stood out the most... i was in the pits 50% of the time

[dmurdz]

I thought that there were a lot of people in the pits, but I think scouting was really key this year so many team members were obliagated to do that.

Also, I think that this year's game was really intense and really fun to watch.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by the_short1

and team..??with those yellow mecanum wheels for straffing.... thsoe were REALLY unique and i saw a lot of people asking questions..

Do you mean team 357, Royal Assault, with the Jester Drive? They certainly fit the description.

[Mark Pierce]

I agree that there seemed to be less in-depth discussions in the pits. Perhaps that is because the 3v3 format meant less time between matches to spend wandering, or the long queuing times left pits without a robot longer at some events. Looking back, I wished I would have spent more time cruising the pits.

We showed a lot of people our "vending machine" grippers, but we had a lot of other neat features this year including drive train refinements, mast/arm mechanisms, and feedback driven control with operator jog controls (in case the pots failed).

I also thought more people would be excited about our shipping crate which doubled as our robot cart/table/pit display/coat rack. Shipping weight to our first regional - crate, robot, batteries was under 300 pounds! Crate Picture

I think a lot of teams were concentrating their effort on scouting what actually happened on the field, rather than looking for ideas for the future. That's unfortunate because learning how others do things is a fascinating and fun part of FIRST.

[the_short1]

yea.,. . i wish i watched more matches.. . watched 90% at GLR and GTR.. . . 5% at atlanta...yes erikH. .. royal assult! and i saw a video of them strafing .. its soo awsome.

"operator jog controls (in case the pots failed)".... jog controls....?.. we made our trigger button a "Override Switch" so if the pot went outa wack we would be ok.. . <<got scrwed over at toronto because of that...never heard it called that before..

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by dlavery

One side-effect of that is the new developments might not hit you in the face when you first looked at a robot, because their physical manifestations were more subtle.

Oh I would disagree because many of them tried very hard (or at least it seemed that way) to hit me square in the face with an arm, tetra, or another robot. Personally I wish I would have had more time to walk around the pits but I found a very large number of unique things to ask questions about. 217's drawer slide "shuttle" system, 233's smooth operating (but very quick and reliable) arm, 25's killer drive system, and a whole host of other ideas that were used while being very unique at the same time. I hope people don't just that everything was the same and there were only a few types of robots because many people have similar concept, but I saw almost no (exception 60/254/22, 1114/1503/1680) identical concepts. I think if you say well everyone had the same robot you missed a whole lot of interesting things that the teams had to do to get their desired results.

and unique drive systems (you obviously didn't look hard enough if you said there wasn't anything interesting): 67's swerve drive, 343's heavily modified AM shifters, and if memory serves me correct there was a team that shifted the kit gearbox by moving it back and forth and therefore tensioning different belts. look @ 1002 and their holonomic drive train that shifted the wheels (and gearboxes if my memory is accurate) in and out to give them more stability.

I think people just need to look harder.

[Quatitos]

I don't think I can share the same feelings with the majority of the people in this thread. Because our robot had a very unique stacking ability, I spent most of my time not working on the robot in the pits talking to people in the pits about the robot. This was my first year on the team so I can't compare it to other years, but I don't feel in any way that we weren't asked about our robot a lot. I don't know how many times I had to demostrate how it worked with my arms because it was so different from everybody else's that most people didn't get it when I explained it with words.

In case you didn't get a chance to see us at GLR, Buckeye, or Nationals, here are some pictures I have uploaded of us in competition.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...&quiet=Verbose
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...&quiet=Verbose
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...&quiet=Verbose

[Starke]

I think this brings up a good point. Mainly the robots that people ask questions about are the ones that have a very unique system or robot. Since many teams this year only took and capped one tetra at a time, there was no need to ask a question about those robots. Teams like 279, 33, 111, and 67 were asked many questions because of there unique systems.

[Meyerman]

team 56 got lots of questions at nj and philly at sacramento we werent really questioned much and nationals people didnt talk to us much untill the final rankings came out soooo we left our pit.

[Wetzel]

Being a ref took a LOT more time and energy then I expected it to. I was exhausted at the end of the day and didn't have the energy to go and wander the pits, particularly with stitches in my foot. I did get to spend a few hours in the Archimedes pits and saw some nifty things, like 40s balls.

If only I had a Segway to get around...

Wetzel