Predictions Week 3: Fighting for Position

[lukevanoort]

Sweet! My team isn't competing this week, but this came in handy for deciding which regional to watch. SVR FTW! I might mix a little Florida in too... I want to see pink in action (I could have sworn I saw a pic of their bot on TBA although it doesn't appear to be there now... I might have been imagining things).

[robotboy11]

Oone team that has emerged as best-of-breed locally is 1708. Though they won Pittsburgh as rookies in 2005, they have struggled over the years to come up with a functional manipulator. This year, though, they have come up with a hurdling beast on a mecanum base that will undoubtedly carry them to the top eight and deep into Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for the invoice and GOOD LUCK to all the team attending the Pittsburgh Regional!! IT will be a blast and very competitive!! We came prepared this year with flags, banners, and sick shirts!! SO hope to see the verterns and new comers also!!

[XaulZan11]

For Wisconsin, I was shocked that 1816 was not mentioned. Not only did they win it two years ago, they were probably the best ramp last year and if I remember correctly was a division finalist in Atlanta last year. Also, 1736 should be getting a lot more publicity. I think that they were clearly the best tube scorer at Wisconsin last year. Both of these two teams should produces some of the best robots at Wisconsin.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

For Wisconsin, I was shocked that 1816 was not mentioned. Not only did they win it two years ago, they were probably the best ramp last year and if I remember correctly was a division finalist in Atlanta last year.

Yeah! We picked them as alliance partners on Newton. In my opinion, they were one of the best ramp bots of 2007. They were awesome alliance partners, too. I also saw them on Newton in 2006, where their green grinning robot overtook the playing field. I might be going to the Connecticut Regional, but I think this guy is onto something- Green Machine is amazing!

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

Ballfrog was one of the best hurdling machines in PNW,

Just a teeny-tiny correction. while Ballfrog was one of the slickest, nicest machines in Portland, it was attending the "Oregon Regional" not the "Pacific Northwest Regional." With the resurrection of the Seattle event, we now have two regionals in the area, and the Portland tournament received a new name.

[Tetraman]

The only real predictions anyone can make are the predicitions of robots you have already seen in action. You can make a case for any team that has built great robots in the past will produce great robots this year, but there is not a single bit of evidance that will point to any team that hasn't proven it's ability yet as a viable contendor for any regional.

The best hurdlers around can not compete without another exceptional hurdler at their side. This was seen very much in NJ when 1114 was blocked constantly. They would have lost that match if it wasn't for the shooting power of 1024. 1114 could have been shut down in an instant if it wasn't for their partner.

Put both of these two together and you have the following: Not a single robot can bring a team to victory, and any team who has a proven record of getting things done are the only teams that are going to shine and pick/get picked.

idk, my reasoning kinda sounds like blabbering. haha

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

The best hurdlers around can not compete without another exceptional hurdler at their side. This was seen very much in NJ when 1114 was blocked constantly. They would have lost that match if it wasn't for the shooting power of 1024. 1114 could have been shut down in an instant if it wasn't for their partner.

NJ or MWR? 1114 and 1024 weren't at NJ. Or were you thinking of 25 and 103?

[Metalhugginman]

Thanks, Honest for your kind words about Metal In Motion and the Peachtree Regional. I hope you are correct althought I would'nt count anybody out until the final tick of the clock has sounded. We have been surprised before. I look forward to reading and seeing how eveyone does this weekend.

Good luck to all teams this, and every year.

[Eldarion]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

P.S. We built a new supporting circuit for our fancy schmancy on-board display so that it won't blank out as easily during heavy battery use characteristic of competition.

-q

I saw your bot down in Midwest--what exactly does it display, anyway?

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

The best hurdlers around can not compete without another exceptional hurdler at their side. This was seen very much in NJ when 1114 was blocked constantly. They would have lost that match if it wasn't for the shooting power of 1024. 1114 could have been shut down in an instant if it wasn't for their partner.

Put both of these two together and you have the following: Not a single robot can bring a team to victory, and any team who has a proven record of getting things done are the only teams that are going to shine and pick/get picked.

Depends on the regional, and the robot, etc. 39 had no problem completely dominating the Arizona regional by themselves, and they were the only robot that could hurdle (or even manipulate the ball for that matter) on their winning alliance.

[Mike Harrison]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

The best hurdlers around can not compete without another exceptional hurdler at their side. This was seen very much in NJ when 1114 was blocked constantly. They would have lost that match if it wasn't for the shooting power of 1024. 1114 could have been shut down in an instant if it wasn't for their partner.

St. Louis??? winning alliance of 1 hurdler and 2 lap bots. Highest score in elims was 122 minus one penalty. I disagree that defense can do anything in this game. The team that resorts to defense is sealing their fate.

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

CHESAPEAKE:
Over the past few year's, Chesapeake has become one of the largest regionals in FIRST, and one of the consistently most unbalanced. Every year it seems an "upper crust" of teams form at the event and dominate. Whichever alliance is successful at unifying these teams typically walks away with the gold fairly easily. I don't expect any of that to change in the 61 team field in Annapolis this year.
The Baltimore Area Alliance will once again be rocking the Halsey Field House in 2008. In '07 they managed to earn three medals (Chairman's, EI, and a finalist), each coming from a different team. I expect more of the same from this collection of teams, with at least one member sneaking into the finals and another collecting either RCA or EI. Whether they make the finals or not, look out for 768 and 1727 to both do well, and one of them likely to emerge as an alliance captain.
1629 is poised to be a member of the top-tier teams in Annapolis again in '08. Their inability to remove balls from the overpass and potential collection troubles may hurt them, but their quick and maneuverable drive should allow for them to score points even without a ball. I don't think they'll be able to carry an alliance on their own, but if they can pair up with another hurdler who can remove the ball from the overpass quickly, I expect nothing short of the finals from the Garrett Coalition.
614 is quietly one of the most consistent teams at the Chesapeake regional, but not only have they never won the event, they've never taken home an award. While I don't expect them to dominate the field, this could be the year they take the trophy monkey off their back and finally bring home some hardware.
Normally flowers wouldn't be considered intimidating, but when you line up against Miss Daisy you can find out just how scary they can be. 341 should be a reliable machine and likely a first-round selection.
836 was one of the best teams in Trenton two weeks ago, but their drivers seemed to struggle at times controlling their machine. If the Robobees' drivers improve with the added practice, they'll become my favorites to take home a banner from the Naval Academy on Saturday.
359, 11, 449, and 293 each also look to build off of decent earlier competitions that fell short of gold. I would watch out for 1626's debut here as well.

X-Factors:

Team RAID (2537) - one of the few do-it-all robots in the competition, albeit a bit top-heavy. Very maneuverable bot,

The Brigade (1980) - do not count them out!! It's #1 seed or bust for them!

CENTER OF MASS - At PlayDay--a number of the hurdlers flipped while trying to do their job. This may happen again at regional.

[cwood]

another robot to watch out for maybe 1218 from what i saw they were able to get the ball down and hurdle using their catapult consistently

[Kev]

my ego almost got inflated reading this.

almost.

[Qbranch]

Originally Posted by Eldarion

I saw your bot down in Midwest--what exactly does it display, anyway?

It varies. For now, during Autonomous mode it displays the robot's relative heading as well as any states or faults that may occur during autonomous (example, dOnE)

It's true that the robot used to display ft/sec during autonomous as well, but since the fire we've had some fun little eh... abnormalities in the autonomous system we're still hammering out.

During Teleoperated mode, the robot displays the combined vector (real) velocity of the robot in ft/sec. For instance: since the robot is differential drive, if it were spinning perfectly in place, the speed would read zero.

The value the display reads can easily be changed by pressing different buttons on the OI panel to read values such as left/right encoder counts, gyro data, arm position, etc.

-q

p.s. We didn't install the voltage conversion circuit until Saturday morning, but there was a huge reduction in the number of times it blanked out due to low battery voltage (fast robot = lots of energy usage).