SVR robot strategy

[Travis Hoffman]

I thought the #1 strategy for 99% of teams at SVR each year was either to

1. Ally with 254 to ensure as automatic a victory as you can find in FIRST.
2. Try to unseat the regional king.

[razor95kds]

score on all the spiders with ease. great drivetrain to climb ramps and to dominate pushing matches for defense. auto will be deploying our robot's tower (has to snap forward and lock in place).

[Arille]

*Sigh*... so many teams are capable of doing so many things (and I am amazed and impressed, I salute you all). But when it comes down to my team, I should just say the honest truth now: Team 2135 puts ringers only on the bottom legs, no ramp.

Now, there was some reasoning behind this design, some of them being:

1) We figured that there are two types of robots on the field: 'bots with ramps, and 'bots that need to go up those ramps. From all of the 'bot designs we were seeing on CD, a lot of bots already plan on having ramps. Especially since this is our rookie year, we should try tackling one problem at a time (the ringers). Once we find a solution for that and if we have time, sure let's attempt a ramp. (But due to time constraints, we weren't even able to touch that. But all is still fine.)

2) Why only the bottom? We ran into weight and mechanical problems trying to do other level legs around end of week 5, so we figured that we would settle with what we have. "Do one thing, and do that one thing very well."

3) Other reasoning, but its past 12AM and I should really be working on my Civics project thats due tomorrow. Haha.

The past 6 weeks were all learning experiences for us, and we really were just learning the foundations for building a basic 'bot. Initially, 2135 was an all-girls rookie team that couldn't even define what a chassis was; and lo and behold! 6 weeks later we build one. Honestly, even if our 'bot just drove around and did nothing but that, we would still be proud of whatever we accomplished. Now that we know the fundamentals for surviving in this competition, maybe next year we can step up our game a little more.

Find 2135 at SVR and ask for the rest of the reasons, if you really insist on doing so.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Arille

1) We figured that there are two types of robots on the field: 'bots with ramps, and 'bots that need to go up those ramps. From all of the 'bot designs we were seeing on CD, a lot of bots already plan on having ramps. Especially since this is our rookie year, we should try tackling one problem at a time (the ringers). Once we find a solution for that and if we have time, sure let's attempt a ramp. (But due to time constraints, we weren't even able to touch that. But all is still fine.)

2) Why only the bottom? We ran into weight and mechanical problems trying to do other level legs around end of week 5, so we figured that we would settle with what we have. "Do one thing, and do that one thing very well."

There's no reason to sigh at all. Too many teams fail year after to year, because they don't follow the reasoning you just outlined. Many veteran teams, still continue to bite off more than they can chew. Very few teams end up being able to do everything really well. Teams who specialize and focus on being very good at one aspect of the game, tend to outshine those who are mediocre at many aspects.

"Do one thing, and do that one thing very well."

I'm quoting this again, because it's so important. In your team's rookie year, you've figured something out that some teams never do. This is one of the best pieces of advice I can give to teams. I salute you and your team. Good luck this season!