What is the hardest (yet possible) task in this year's game?

[Conor Delaney]

shooting on the run

[Branden Ghena]

this seems slightly pointless

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Hmm... Maybe put all 10 balls though the cnter goal in less than, say, 7 seconds?

Being realistic, I'd say that that's impossible.

If you were to somehow design an /incredibly/ accurate robot who could make 75% of its shots, you would still have to fire off fifteen shots in 6.8 seconds (less than 7) or 2.205 balls per second. And 75% is not realistic for an acuracy measure.

I would say a challenge could be to:

carry x balls (suggestion: 35-40)
make y% accuracy with a shooter(suggestion: 70%) (within some reasonable amount of time, though not really timed)

[hallk]

What about scoring on your goal from the platform below it? There was lots of debate how this would never work before.

[jimfortytwo]

Personally, I'm going to be looking for these two things. I bet they're even feasible.

1) One robot scoring all 10 balls to the center during autonomous.

2) A robot with a completely automated vision and aiming system, who can score >10 consecutive balls to the center during _human_ player mode. And I'd want to see these shots taken from at least a few different places on the field.

[rufu5]

Originally Posted by donut

How about put all 10 balls in the center goal in autonomous, without using a dead reckoning system?

I second that objective (notice i bolded and underlined "without" using a dead reckoning system).

First team to do it wins.

Let the games begin.

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by aaeamdar

Being realistic, I'd say that that's impossible.

If you were to somehow design an /incredibly/ accurate robot who could make 75% of its shots, you would still have to fire off fifteen shots in 6.8 seconds (less than 7) or 2.205 balls per second. And 75% is not realistic for an acuracy measure.

Okay, couple things wrong here. First of all, assuming an autonomous challenge, you could, by yourself, only shoot ten balls. Now, That is a ball every 7/10 of a second, which (look at you watch) is not that short a period using a flywheel to throw them. Now, the challenge assumes that you SHOOT the balls in 7 seconds, so you get three second grace period to find and lock onto the target. Sounds pretty possible to me, especially if you did it without moving from your starting position.

[Ian Curtis]

I think you guys aren't taking everything into account when you say that 10 balls in 7 seconds is impossible. What about a 2 or even scarier 4 barrel launcher! We'd see some fast scoring.

[KenWittlief]

for a little persepective on this, the max airspeed of the ball is 12 meters per second

if you fire balls at one second intervals they will be 12 meters apart in flight

thats ~40 feet apart. in the world of launched projectiles that is a HUGE space

I can visulalize balls flying through the air 2 meters apart, and all going in the goal - at 12 m/s that 10 balls in 1.66 seconds!

Its very easy to get tunnel vision, and only think of the problem in terms of what a human being can do

we need to think of this in terms of what a machine can do. A machine with a computerized targeting system, and 2HP at its disposal.

[spamified88]

How about a robot accurately scoring over 90% of the shots they take in a match? That sounds possible, but all comes down to how your robot and your driver cooperate. Cooperation between man and machine, SWEET!

[Andrew Blair]

May I add, 2 horsepower of FLYWHEEL FURY!

I'm actually kinda worried this year about randomly exploding throwing mechanisms. If designed incorrectly, flywheels have a nasty tendency to use their energy in a destructive manner. We recently found this out for real, after yesterday, watching a 1 lbs flywheel literally float on a concrete floor. Luckily, it floated, upright and spinning, away from us, behind some drawers, where it made indescriminate banging noises as it came to a stop from several thousand RPM. Scary. FIRST has never dealt with this sort of stored energy being so easily released in such a small package.

[KenWittlief]

I see lots of potential for secondary functions here.

If you get a big flywheel spinning inside your robot, it will be impossible for it to tip over!

[Andrew Blair]

That is a good point... But with a flywheel that big, you won't be manuevering much youself!

[Warren Boudreau]

Launch 10 balls into the center goal from the starting position in autonomous.

That's right, no moving of the chassis. Just aim and fire.

[yodameister]

How about one bot collecting and holding all 80 balls on the playing field? That would be quite interesting to see.