A Robot That Inspires You

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

do you mean 2156? patriotics?

2165 was a finalist at the Kansas City regional, and won the regional RAS award. 2156 won RAS & RI at Sacramento. 2056 is Patriotics and won 2 regionals, 2 highest rookie seeds, and a regional RAS.

[Cory]

I'll start with robots that inspired me when I was new to FIRST--

47 in 2000-Simply amazing machine. Extremely well engineered.

71 in 2001-Did everything, did it perfectly, and did it quick. Total domination isn't a strong enough descriptor. I wanted to make a robot like that.

60 in 2002-This is still one of my top two or three favorite robots ever. This
robot was so well engineered. It was incredibly simple, clean, and sleek and worked incredibly well.

71 in 2002-As they often have, Beatty came up with a strategy and robot that was as close to unbeatable as humanly possible. Their use of file cards and the walking feet was revolutionary and made them impossible to move once deployed.

Robots that have inspired me since--

111 in 2003- Stang PS, 'nuff said. Watching their robot come out, encounter an obstacle, swerve around it, and then make their way up to the top of the ramp (faster than 90% or more of all the other teams) was amazing. Being able to change autonomous modes simply by clicking anywhere on the field and adding waypoints, and integrating all the sensors and programming to do so is an amazing feat. Combine that with the fact that this robot was perfectly engineered to dominate the competition with it's swerve drive and two wings, and you get one incredible robot.

60/254 in 2004- In and prior to 2004, 60 and 254 were the two premier west coast teams. For them to get together and collaborate on the design of their robots was amazing in and of itself, and has now become commonplace. Beyond that, the robot they designed was one of the best of all time. The only thing that stopped these two teams all year was mechanical failure of their winch cable, and bad luck. These two robots were clearly head and shoulders over all others in 2004, and unless they made a mistake, your chances of winning against them were not very good.

1114 and company in 2006- Watching their robot dominate everyone, and joining the company of the only team to have ever one three regional events in one year was inspiring to me. Like all these other robots, it was very well engineered. It's drivetrain allowed it to actively resist being pushed to keep on target, and the shooter allowed it to curve it's shots, giving it greater flexibility.

233 any year. Particularly 2005-2007. The first time I see a new Pink bot, my jaw always drops. They are consistently the best engineered, sleekest, most beautifully machined robot out there. Every single component has clearly been thought out and CAD'ed from the major systems, all the way down to their battery mount (who noticed their super sweet CNC machined battery retention system this year? ). That kind of attention to detail is simply amazing. You could spend an entire day staring at their robot, and there's no way you would find anything that looked out of place. I'm continually in awe of their craftsmanship.

All these robots, and many others that make you go "wow" have inspired me in many ways. Look at how many aspects of these robots (and many other greats that I've not listed) have been incorporated into current robots by many a team, and I think it's clear they've inspired many.

[Pavan Dave]

I don't think any "ROBOT" has inspired me. I think it has been teams that have built beautiful successful bots that have inspired me. Specifically a few teams are at the top of my list, with some of the most helpuful people and some of the most inspirational ways thinking. They would be Wildstang (111), RoboWranglers (148), and The Poofs (254) and Pink (233).

Peace.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I wasn't around for 2005 so unfortunately I never saw your bot from that year. But this year I absolutely loved it, especially the arm. To me the arm looked like you could have wailed on it with a sledgehammer and maybe you would have scratched it.

Not a problem on the 2005 robot:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/21476

2007, for reference (actually our practice robot, but very similar concept and the resemblance is clearer):
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27675

A sledgehammer might have broken the fiberglass, but not the metal inside. If any robot had broken both the fiberglass and the steel/aluminum inside, they would probably have lost the match on a red card. Even on Curie. (Definitely on Einstein. And, if it was in finals, who cares about the timeout? Give us two minutes max and the spare is on.)

[bear24rw]

Gunna go for a more intelligent robot next year..

[AndyB]

This year's 1114 bot was RIDICULOUS. I can't imagine anything more creative or dominating. Their drivers knew how to control it as well.

[Grant Cox]

This is my rookie year, so I'm somewhat easily impressed my tops would definitely be:

148 - their end effector was simply incredible. Add in a killer drive base and drivers that know how to work it well, you've got (in my opinion)the best robot of 07.

1625 - the title of the thread is "robots that inspired you." This was not only the first bot I saw with a swerve drive (very cool to someone who doesn't know what's going on), but their lifter system was awesome. I believe they were the first team at St. Louis to lift two @ 12", and their method of doing so was awesome.

2056 - their KISS system showed everybody that even the most baseline robot, paired with a good auton and drive team, can be verrryy competitive.

233 - I LOVE that arm/grabber setup. Nothing else to be said.

703 - 14 wheels!!! I'll never forget being pushed halfway around the rack by them in Detroit, haha.


Edit: this is my 148th post

[Gabe]

Team 111 every year.

And since you never specified FIRST robotics...

Biohazard, Alos, and every creation from Team Wyachi.

[Billfred]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. SPAM 2004 is the robot that got me hooked.

[BQuennell]

I've got to say that a few teams out there stood out not only with the talent and skill of their robot and drivers but with the team themselves, In both the Los Angles and the San Diego regionals Team 968 was all around amazing, I was impressed with their team structure and the friendliness of some of their team members alongside their impressive performances on the field.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Gabe

Team 111 every year.

And since you never specified FIRST robotics...

Biohazard, Alos, and every creation from Team Wyachi.

I'll have to second that... Team whyachi are good people...

[BBnum3]

Wildstang in 2006. It was my rookie year and we got selected by them for the finals. I was (and still am) amazed at how fast and accurately the turret aimed and how rapidly the balls flew into the goal. Seeing that robot inspired my and my team to strive to build a great robot every year.

[cooker52]

If we were talking about the drive team, I would have to say team 45 for their awesome ability to climb on our wings, even with two robot already on their. See what I'm talking about here.

As for design, I just love to see what everyone has made, and it all inpresses me equally.

[Uberbots]

25, 40, and 173 were very inspirational to me... they both had very robust designs. they were the kind of robots you could repeatedly crash into the rack with and they wouldn't break.
Our robot, although it performed very well, was in fact very flimsy and a simple push in the wrong area would have put us out of competition. luckily, the only times that happened were at our scrimmage and the final match of the UTC regional.

in any case though, 25's robot was untippable and transferred its momentum very well when hit. 40 had a strong arm, a very well done autonomous, and could easily be driven around with as much recklessness as humanly possible. 173... that was one beast of an arm, and it was also extremely fast. you could RAM that arm at full speed and nothing would happen to it. It is mechanical aspects like that which i am planning to use as models in future design proposals for robots to come.

[smurfgirl]

Team 177's robot(s) made an impression on me. Last year it was because of how well their bot worked. When we partnered with them at the UTC regional, they had engineered a robot with amazing offense. We ended up playing defense to let them score. This year, their robot left me in awe when we played against them- we had practiced resisting against defense, but in the finals on Newton they pushed us aside as if we weren't even there. Their drivetrain is incredible, and their ability to partner this with other excellent attributes in their robots each year has stood out in my mind.