FASTEST 2008 ROBOT

[JVN]

Originally Posted by RyanN

I agree with XaulZan11. Even though some robots may go up to 30FPS, how much pushing power do they have so they can make laps? I know 148 was faster than us, but in the Bayou Regional, we could made more laps than they did, and I believe we actually held the record for the most laps in a single match at the Bayou Regional. Don't quote me on this because I don't have concrete facts and I'm going off of memory and scouting.

We didn't really focus on lapping in New Orleans. Most matches we were playing a defensive role. This greatly reduced our lap count. As the season went on and the game developed, so did our strategies. This resulted in drastically different play between St. Louis (week 1) and New Orleans (week 5).

Our team focuses on continuous improvement. We knew that bringing our St Louis game to New Orleans would be foolish. (Though, I think we all wish the auton would have been up to the STL level.)

364 has an incredible machine, and they are a great team. I'm looking forward to seeing them again at IRI. It was cool to see such a great hurdler could also function well as a lap-bot.

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

148 has nowhere near the top speed in f/s that many other teams did.

This is true. We are geared at about 20 ft/s free-speed. During the build season we were geared as high as 30 ft/s free-speed, but this turned out to be foolish.

Our goal was to build a robot which was fast on the field, not fast in a drag race. Our experimentation and iteration showed that we were faster and more consistent with a slower top-speed (it is weird to describe 20fps as "slower").

This is why we would get beat easily by some other lap-bots in drag-races, or in open-field lap-races. However, this system was not intended for either of those scenarios, ours was designed to compete in a FIRST Overdrive match, with 5 other robots. *shrug*

We may be one of the fastest robots, but we are not the fastest.
Kudos to all the teams who can toast us!

-John

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by JVN

We didn't really focus on lapping in New Orleans. Most matches we were playing a defensive role. This greatly reduced our lap count. As the season went on and the game developed, so did our strategies. This resulted in drastically different play between St. Louis (week 1) and New Orleans (week 5).

Our team focuses on continuous improvement. We knew that bringing our St Louis game to New Orleans would be foolish. (Though, I think we all wish the auton would have been up to the STL level.)

364 has an incredible machine, and they are a great team. I'm looking forward to seeing them again at IRI. It was cool to see such a great hurdler could also function well as a lap-bot.


This is true. We are geared at about 20 ft/s free-speed. During the build season we were geared as high as 30 ft/s free-speed, but this turned out to be foolish.

Our goal was to build a robot which was fast on the field, not fast in a drag race. Our experimentation and iteration showed that we were faster and more consistent with a slower top-speed (it is weird to describe 20fps as "slower").

This is why we would get beat easily by some other lap-bots in drag-races, or in open-field lap-races. However, this system was not intended for either of those scenarios, ours was designed to compete in a FIRST Overdrive match, with 5 other robots. *shrug*

We may be one of the fastest robots, but we are not the fastest.
Kudos to all the teams who can toast us!

-John

I definitely noticed 148's transition to a defensive bot, especially at the championship. I congratulate your team's success. I believe I watched one of the videos with your team geared to 30FPS. When Tumbleweed went around a corner, it tipped on its side (can't really say one or two wheels). I would hate to keep control of the robot going at that speed.

Our robot is geared right around 15FPS, with 6WD and 4 CIMS. We could have been much faster if we had wished, but we ended up going with a mid-speed robot with a lot of power. In autonomous we had to ramp up our start because we would make a wheelie. I believe our robot is fast enough and strong to be competitive. I only really wish our hurdling ability was a little better, but we were worried about our COG with more mechanisms toward the top of the robot.

[ParkerF]

Originally Posted by RyanN

I definitely noticed 148's transition to a defensive bot, especially at the championship. I congratulate your team's success. I believe I watched one of the videos with your team geared to 30FPS. When Tumbleweed went around a corner, it tipped on its side (can't really say one or two wheels). I would hate to keep control of the robot going at that speed.

I almost want to say we filmed that after gearing the speed down, but John would have to confirm that. I can't remember exactly when things happened during the build anymore hehe. The main reason we never tipped as far up like that during the season is the wheelie-balls we added underneath.

I also thought 1114 was pretty fast, but they assured me it was only geared around 15 f/s.

If I had to choose my favorite 'fast bot' it would definitely be Cheesy Poofs. I just loved their robot and their techniques on how to not only have a fast drive, but fast slide, etc.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by francistexas

I also thought 1114 was pretty fast, but they assured me it was only geared around 15 f/s.

It depends on how you look at it. If you assume 100% efficiency throughout our system, and a 5500 RPM free speed for the CIMs, theoretically we're geared for 18.4 fps in high gear. That being said, the 100% efficiency assumption is clearly flawed. Using some standard efficiency numbers, we figure a more accurate top speed for our robot is between 15-16 fps, as quoted by Parker.

So, we were pretty fast, but definitely not the fastest. (I'm sure there's some Canadian metric vs. imperial joke to be made in all of this, but I'll leave it to someone wittier than myself.)

[Ripper]

I think 148, 1114, 381,102

[Mr. Lim]

1114 was an interesting "fast" robot. I walked away from both GTR and Waterloo with the idea firmly planted in my head that 1114 was the "fastest" robot there. But I also knew they weren't geared for a top speed as high as many other robots there.

It's a world of difference when your drivers find the seams with such skill that they rarely have to slow down.

Now THAT'S fast...

[XaulZan11]

While 1114 clearly isn't the fastest, they appear so fast because they have no wasted motion. They don't ever overturn, misline up picking a ball, or any other inefficient motions. They get the max out of thier 15 or so f/s due to thier fantastic drivers.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by SlimBoJones

1114 was an interesting "fast" robot. I walked away from both GTR and Waterloo with the idea firmly planted in my head that 1114 was the "fastest" robot there. But I also knew they weren't geared for a top speed as high as many other robots there.

It's a world of difference when your drivers find the seams with such skill that they rarely have to slow down.

Now THAT'S fast...

This is the exact same feeling I've had watching 330 over the past four years. In 2007, there was no doubt in my mind that they were the fastest team in FIRST, until I heard what they were actually geared for. There's a world of difference between fastest robot in open space, and the fastest robot in an actual FIRST match.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Karthik

(I'm sure there's some Canadian metric vs. imperial joke to be made in all of this, but I'll leave it to someone wittier than myself.)

Furlongs per Fortnight?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Furlongs per Fortnight?

Nah...furlongs are, as I recall, 1/8 of a mile, or about 200 yards (English) and both metric and imperial use the same time units (Fortnight=2 weeks).

I'm guessing that 1114 found foot-wide gaps and made them meter-wide ones, though.