Midwest Elim Alliances

[Justin]

Originally Posted by MikeFrom71

No, I am very sure that was a "we beat 71!" post.

Okay I am really not sure what this means at all. In fact it would actually be impossible for me to make a "we beat 71" post because a) I am not on a team anymore. b) if you check my profile you will find that I list team 146 as my team this was my original high school team an it not longer exists. So I speak for no team, and no one but myself...period. This post was simply stating my interpretation of the events that have transpired in the matches and finals this year. In terms of the other members of the alliance I think they played well I apologize sincerely to 141 and 1775 no snub intended. In fact the intent of my post was not to snub or knock any one team but maybe just to highlight some observations for the benefit of other teams who might still have regionals to attend. I'm sorry you interpreted it as an attempt to slight your team or your alliance. However I will not apologize for the post and hope that some will find it useful. Team 71 has one what 4 national championships and they have plenty to be proud of, while I apologize for not being as familiar with 141 or 1775 I am sure that they have a list of equal accomplishments.


Justin

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

HOWEVER, the ol' shoot em up offense in auto is easily defended by the most simple autonomous move in the game...the straight line auto kamakazee play (try saying that 3 times fast).

Not necessarily - ask the teams that successfully attempted to run into us during autonomous if it stopped us from scoring during auto.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

Not necessarily - ask the teams that successfully attempted to run into us during autonomous if it stopped us from scoring during auto.

Well...yeah...I mean...look at your robot. Thats like running a horsefly into a refrigerator. Sure the effort is there, but in the end...there's just too much mass to budge it.

Good ol' Motorola engineering right there.

I will hazard a guess though, and say that the first time the Bobcats try to go full bore into you guys...there might just be a liiiiitle movement. But thats just me...I'm biased of course.

In all seriousness, do you guys utilize some sort of breaking mechanism, or is it just traction that keeps ya from moving?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

Not necessarily - ask the teams that successfully attempted to run into us during autonomous if it stopped us from scoring during auto.

Theres a perfectly good reason for that.. Midwest defense has no style!

www.team195.com/files/NEDefense.wmv
(First clip: Team 20's amazing auto pan/tilt autonomous mode was taken out by a hit on the corner of their bot, apparently putting their camera out of range.

Second Clip: 2 autonomous shooting robots were taken out by simple autonomous modes, delayed to start at the opportune time.

Note: Both matches faced 2 small ball bots and 1 not too good shooter against an alliance of at least 2 strong shooters. Needless to say, our alliance won 60-19 in the first match (team 20's only loss in qualifying rounds) and 79-52 in the next

Another note: We do not shoot into the center goal. Our robot was designed to play hard defense and work the small goal.Only one of our alliance partners has ever shot more than 1 ball through the center goal in auto. Still, we have never lost an autonomous mode. )

Watching the Silicon Valley Regional and how most of the shooters went undefended, I really wish we went out the CA this year.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

In all seriousness, do you guys utilize some sort of breaking mechanism, or is it just traction that keeps ya from moving?

I'm not suggesting that we can't be moved. In fact, during one match we were partially pushed up the ramp in autonomous.

My point was that we're capable of scoring anyway. And you also have to know where we're going to be in order to run into us.

It's all about the defense-avoidance offensive moves

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

It's all about the defense-avoidance offensive moves

In the second match of the finals at UTC, 358 changed their autonomous routine from beelining toward the light to moving in an L. Instead of hitting them like we did in the first match, we went right by them!

That being said, we've taken some initiatives that should help us counteract such sneakery in the future.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

In the second match of the finals at UTC, 358 changed their autonomous routine from beelining toward the light to moving in an L. Instead of hitting them like we did in the first match, we went right by them!

That being said, we've taken some initiatives that should help us counteract such sneakery in the future.

I'm thinking the heck with the green light there are lots of other things that might be beneficial to track out there on the playing field....especially in autonomous. I thought 177 rocked at UTC great defense and great strategy by opting to build your own alliance. Good luck at the rest of the comps and hope we'll see you in the off season. Have you guys been up to River Rage? It is early yet but we'd love to have you this will be the 10th year...should be a good one.

Justin

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

I'm not suggesting that we can't be moved. In fact, during one match we were partially pushed up the ramp in autonomous.

My point was that we're capable of scoring anyway. And you also have to know where we're going to be in order to run into us.

It's all about the defense-avoidance offensive moves

If only every team had a Wildstang programmer! God... how many auton modes do you actually have? I know that they can be programmed on a whim, too. That's just amazing. And you guys used the camera amazingly. There was no angle you could not hit from. Good job.

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Budda648

If only every team had a Wildstang programmer!

Good thing we have more than one then

How many auton modes do you actually have?

More than we will ever show on the field...gotta have a bag of tricks floating around

In all seriousness though, the trick that we used for autonomous is one of the foundations of software...reusability. All of the autonomous programs that we ran at Midwest were literally the same program with different inputs: Run through a list of joystick commands, then shoot. The joystick commands run through the same function that operator joystick inputs run through. The turret and shooter controls are just calls to the same functions that are used in operator control.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Watching the Silicon Valley Regional and how most of the shooters went undefended, I really wish we went out the CA this year.

Defense was pitifull there this year, although there was some heavy defense in the eliminations.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Dave Scheck

Good thing we have more than one then

More than we will ever show on the field...gotta have a bag of tricks floating around

In all seriousness though, the trick that we used for autonomous is one of the foundations of software...reusability. All of the autonomous programs that we ran at Midwest were literally the same program with different inputs: Run through a list of joystick commands, then shoot. The joystick commands run through the same function that operator joystick inputs run through. The turret and shooter controls are just calls to the same functions that are used in operator control.

And the fact that you could stop short of your target within certain distances... how many variations of those do you have? I might just wanna ask... how high does your dial go?

And about your controller interface... that was pretty awesome. Those Motorola engineers are pretty dang amazing. Never cease to amaze me. StangPS now this...