Most... um... "entertaining" autonomous.

[danshaffer]

i would like to nominate the joint team 8/1425 from LVR semis. We shook the rack, took off a diamond plate, and 1425's ringer bounced onto the rack. That said, we were on different alliances.

[geeknerd99]

Match 49 @ VCU, AKA "Jumping to Hyperspace". I thought we had broken the rack, but I think it came out in better shape than we did.

Note our slapping of the rack with our ramp later in the video. This actually prevented two tubes from being scored.

[Zach Wydick]

Originally Posted by danshaffer

i would like to nominate the joint team 8/1425 from LVR semis. We shook the rack, took off a diamond plate, and 1425's ringer bounced onto the rack. That said, we were on different alliances.

I must say that was pretty cool...i was on the field when it happend and i didnt realize how cool it looked til i saw a video recording later

[=Martin=Taylor=]

I don't have a video of it, but in one of our first practice matches in Atlanta our robot "Break Danced." Those who saw it will agree that it was one of the most extraordinary auto-modes of 2007.

Our robot raised its arm to full height and bounced in a circle for 30 seconds - at each moment almost loosing contact with the ground !

It was one of the most terrifying sights I have ever seen....

This was NOT supposed to happen, and it resulted from mechanics related turning problems that were later solved with omni-wheels.

[Stephi Rae]

Originally Posted by danshaffer

i would like to nominate the joint team 8/1425 from LVR semis. We shook the rack, took off a diamond plate, and 1425's ringer bounced onto the rack. That said, we were on different alliances.

you beat me to it, i was just about to post that but i wanted to find it first. That was pretty much amazing, that ended up being the highest scoring match of the regional, it was pretty exciting! you guys were really great, team 8. and thanks yet again to error code and the poofs! we were cheering for you guys in atlanta! it was almost as much fun as if we had been picked! we hope to see you all again next year!

so ya, that match was semifinal 1 match 2. http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv...p?matchid=3165

[Qbranch]

Wow is all i can say.

-q

[Swampdude]

Lol that first one is good. We had one in the first match of finals at UCF. We accidentally left it in "Kill Mode" which was meant to go across the field and cut across the rack. But we meant to "do nothing" here. So instead it took off in high gear and nearly took out both alliance partners by and inch, but somehow didn't hit anything. This match we discovered our arm was broke from the previous match as well, and had to play some defense.

UCF Final match 1

[Alan Anderson]

Our robot did something "entertaining" during an early match in St. Louis. We had just finished up our drivebase PID tuning, and had a simple "drive forward six inches" mode selected as a final test. Apparently, one of our wheel encoders developed a broken connection, so the software acted as if one side of the robot was nailed to the floor. What we saw on the field was this:

The 'bot deployed the arm, did at least two full turns in one direction while managing not to scrape the gripper against the field boundary, stopped, did it again in the other direction, ran diagonally across the field, barely missing both alliance partners and the rack, then stopped a few inches short of crashing into the field boundary on the other side of where it started -- not intentionally, but because autonomous mode was over.

"Drive forward six inches" had turned into "drive forward enough to measure 6 inches even with one side not moving, turn in place trying to correct the measured yaw error, overshoot because the robot is actually spinning twice as fast as the software thinks, turn in place the other direction trying to correct the overshoot, get the correction right this time because the too-fast turn is compensated by a too-fast correction, then take off at full speed trying to correct the accumulated position error." That was what I eventually decided was going on in the program, anyway.

[Koko Ed]

The most entertaining autonomous of all-time is 229 robot Irrational at FLR last year driving forward and suddenly turning on a dime and firing all of it's balls at Steve.
Comedy gold!

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Our robot did something "entertaining" during an early match in St. Louis. We had just finished up our drivebase PID tuning, and had a simple "drive forward six inches" mode selected as a final test. Apparently, one of our wheel encoders developed a broken connection, so the software acted as if one side of the robot was nailed to the floor. What we saw on the field was this:

The 'bot deployed the arm, did at least two full turns in one direction while managing not to scrape the gripper against the field boundary, stopped, did it again in the other direction, ran diagonally across the field, barely missing both alliance partners and the rack, then stopped a few inches short of crashing into the field boundary on the other side of where it started -- not intentionally, but because autonomous mode was over.

"Drive forward six inches" had turned into "drive forward enough to measure 6 inches even with one side not moving, turn in place trying to correct the measured yaw error, overshoot because the robot is actually spinning twice as fast as the software thinks, turn in place the other direction trying to correct the overshoot, get the correction right this time because the too-fast turn is compensated by a too-fast correction, then take off at full speed trying to correct the accumulated position error." That was what I eventually decided was going on in the program, anyway.

I like the one you guys did at Purdue better. Andy told me the plan was to go around the rack to the backside but when your robot went screaming into the spider leg at full speed I thought the whole armory shook. What was amazing was that the whole top of the robot didn't come off. Great construction.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by IndySam

I like the one you guys did at Purdue better. Andy told me the plan was to go around the rack to the backside but when your robot went screaming into the spider leg at full speed I thought the whole armory shook. What was amazing was that the whole top of the robot didn't come off. Great construction.

Thanks, Scott...

We had this automode, code named "Back in Black". We would back up, full speed (13 fps), stop, and then look for the light. The plan was to place a tube on our opponent's side of the rack. The only time we would ever plan to use it was if we were opposed from a robot that did not move (would not want to ram them), and our partner was going for the middle column in auto.

So... during one of our Q matches at Boilermaker, our drive team decided to try this. The robot went full speed, backwards, and hit the left side spider legs. The spider legs resisted the impact and tipped the robot over. Either the drive team did not aim the robot correctly, or the robot veered to the right too much while backing up.

The head ref was ticked at us for that one, and said that if our drive team did it again, they would be DQ'ed for field damage.

We did not run that mode ever again, even at the Championships.

I have still not seen a video of that match. If I find one that is digital, I will post a link here.

The unfortunate thing about this was that a reporter from our hometown newspaper just happened to walk in to the arena at this same time as this match. While we explained what exactly happened, and what "automode" was, he could not understand that this was simply an aiming error. In the next day's paper, the writer talked about our mistake in how we wrote the code, and how the drivers should have chosen to drive during this part of the match. He just could not get past this dramatic wreck and didn't understand that we actually meant to send our robot backwards that fast.

AB

[Doug Leppard]

Some pretty funny auto modes, and swamp almost did take us out that one game.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by IndySam

I like the one you guys did at Purdue better. Andy told me the plan was to go around the rack to the backside but when your robot went screaming into the spider leg at full speed I thought the whole armory shook. What was amazing was that the whole top of the robot didn't come off. Great construction.

That wasn't "entertaining" at all from the team's point of view!

The drive team had never set up the robot for the "Back in Black" mode before, and apparently misunderstood the instructions to put it right next to the field boundary and give the rack plenty of room. I think they tried to aim for a near miss of the rack...and the 'bot failed to miss it. I had also told them it would work best on the right side of the field, but maybe the fact that the robot drives backwards made left and right ambiguous.

We got lucky. The big CIM motor took the hit; if it had been on the other side of the field, the sheet aluminum camera shield would likely have been twisted badly and could even have damaged the pan-tilt assembly. Holding the keeper up at exactly the right height seems to have saved the arm when the 'bot clotheslined itself on the spider leg and took a tumble onto its front. We were amazed to find the gripper had survived with no damage to speak of.

[hipsterjr]

In Florida, 342 didn't have time to finish our tracking program before our next match. So, one of the freshmen said, "hey, just make it do dounuts for now!" Our programer said in a manical way "OK!" With me being the driver, I knew nothing about this till I saw it jump forward and start spinning! The announcer called it "342's destracting autonomous dance." After Florida, we made banners and stickers with the "Happy Feet" pieguins and read, "SURE. YOU ROBOT CAN SCORE, BUT CAN IT DANCE?!"

Some rounds, teams would try to ram us in autonomous, but not one could touch our dancing bot.

[wendymom]

There was one match in Vegas that Pink had gotten to the rack but they were off by just a bit. The other alliance robot had a defensive mode and they nudged Pink just enough to line them up and allow them to score. It was a beautiful sight to see.