Car Nack Predicts 01/08/07

[Levin571]

I too disagree, now that the camera has become so common in the last few years, I expect that teams more teams will be able to use it effectively.

I predict that in at least one competition, there will be five or less robots that score the keepers not using dead reckoning.

[Billfred]

I think the Great and Wise Car Nack has the gist of it, but I believe that the first robot to get a keeper on the rack will be the only robot to get a keeper on the rack for a given match. After that, there's gonna be wiggleville.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I think the Great and Wise Car Nack has the gist of it, but I believe that the first robot to get a keeper on the rack will be the only robot to get a keeper on the rack for a given match. After that, there's gonna be wiggleville.

I concur.

[BandChick]

I agree somewhere between the great Car Nack and what Billfred said (hehe, say that five times fast). I do think teams have been able to develop better code for the camera, but I think it's going to be very similar to capping the center goal, like Greg suggested. Plus, in my opinion, there's only a SMALL emphasis on scoring in autonomous, so I can't imagine that many teams are going to "go for the gold" so to speak.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by BandChick

I agree somewhere between the great Car Nack and what Billfred said (hehe, say that five times fast). I do think teams have been able to develop better code for the camera, but I think it's going to be very similar to capping the center goal, like Greg suggested.

It's not similar to the center goal in '05 at all. Now we have lighted targets, so we can actually see where we are going. I wouldn't be surprised if several teams score keepers, just not at the same time.

[nuggetsyl]

I partly agree with car nack. I think there will be keepers scored in auto but not using the camera.

[Elgin Clock]

To add my own prediction, most of the keepers ever scored will be along the bottom row of the rack.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

To add my own prediction, most of the keepers ever scored will be along the bottom row of the rack.

Why? It's much harder to score them there than at the top.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Cory

Why? It's much harder to score them there than at the top.

How so?

With the lower racks you can pre-align the robot up positioned with the keeper to run into a bottom rack scorring spider leg and you will be golden.
The only thing you have to worry about is the "slight adjustment" after you set up your robot, but I don't think that will make much of a difference.

What is your reasoning Cory? I'm guessing less leg shake up above, and the target to help you? Maybe, but it also constitutes actuating an arm or something to reach that high as well.

I know from past experience it takes quite a while to drop a tetra on a goal in autonomous mode. The only advantage this year is you start with the game piece in your possession.

[1768]

I strongly disagree with Billfred. I predict that in _very_ few matches will less than one keeper per team be scored. The spiders are nigh impossible to shake without a running start, and barring collisions any team with halfway competent programmers (a group among which I count myself) should be able to score underneath a light.
In short, IMHO Car Nack is dead wrong. But I've been wrong many times before.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

How so?

With the lower racks you can pre-align the robot up positioned with the keeper to run into a bottom rack scorring spider leg and you will be golden.
The only thing you have to worry about is the "slight adjustment" after you set up your robot, but I don't think that will make much of a difference.

What is your reasoning Cory? I'm guessing less leg shake up above, and the target to help you? Maybe, but it also constitutes actuating an arm or something to reach that high as well.

I know from past experience it takes quite a while to drop a tetra on a goal in autonomous mode. The only advantage this year is you start with the game piece in your possession.

The leg shake is very dramatic at the bottom, and any dead reckoning autonomous is surely to be interfered with if it's not the first bot there and it's aiming for the bottom.
In terms of coding difficulty, if the team is using closed loop control (or has done enough testing to know how long to run the motors to get their manipulator to the right height), it should be no more difficult to score on the higher spiders during autonomous (in fact easier due to the lesser shaking) than down low.


As for Car-Nack. It really depends on how good 383 and the rest of the Brazilian teams are this year, because that's the only regional I could see less than 5 keepers scored. Not knocking the Brazilians in any way, it's just a much smaller and younger event (even than Israel).

[Donut]

Originally Posted by nuggetsyl

I partly agree with car nack. I think there will be keepers scored in auto but not using the camera.

I partly agree with this, and Carnack will be right for one regional (it might only be one, but it'll still be true). Although teams have gotten the camera working last year, I don't think using the camera to find the goal will be the hard part; I think making sure you're at the right angle to put a keeper on one of the legs will be.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I think the Great and Wise Car Nack has the gist of it, but I believe that the first robot to get a keeper on the rack will be the only robot to get a keeper on the rack for a given match. After that, there's gonna be wiggleville.

Bingo.
I also don't think there will be alot of scoring with the rack swinging all match long unless there are particualrly skilled teams involved.

[Matt Leese]

While I agree that scoring of keepers will be rare, I don't think it will be as rare as scoring a vision tetra was in 2005. To me, the autonomous problem this year seems an order of magnitude simpler: you start out with the scoring item which means you only have to find and drive to the goal. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, just a lot simpler than that year.

Matt

[Conor Ryan]

Car Nack can predict, but that doesn't mean we won't try. However by making such a statement, the strategic value of the Keepers are much greater than the points they earn.