IYO, whats most important

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Dantvman27

Rank these following criteria from most important, to least important for field scouting, in your humble opinion


Balls Score
Balls Shot
Scoring percentage (Balls Scored/Balls Shot)
Human Player Balls scored
Human Player Balls Shot
Human Player Scoring percentage
Balls in own trailer
Speed
Traction
Strength
Autonomous Balls Scored
Empty Cell transported
Super Cell Scored
Driving Skill


Feel free to add anything you i might have overlooked. I listed these in no real order

Folks,

Some of the "5th Gear Robotics Simulation" team's visions/goals are the following (stay with me and I will wind up back on topic):

• Improving the current 5th Gear Match simulator to be more of a robot simulator and to allow you to encode the appropriate characteristics from this thread's original post, into the robot models it uses.
• Combine that first improvement with user-customized "AI" algorithms that let users encode different driving/scoring/offense/defense styles/strategies/tactics.
• Combine both of the improvements above with a genetic programming and/or evolving population software "wrapper" around the simulator

The result is a tool that lets you use your opinions about how well your team's robot design (and Human Player abilities) will translate into an actual machine that will accomplish tasks (tasks like avoiding getting pinned, or hanging Rack-N-Roll tubes, or shooting Orbit Balls at a moving target, or...) and then simulate a jillion matches (with/against simulated other robots with simulated abilities you assigned).

At the end of those jillion simulated matches, if you have put in valid assumptions, you will begin to see which designs/strategies (or combinations of designs/strategies in a drafted alliance) are emerging as the ones that can play the game the best (given the assumptions you put into the process). Using genetic programming techniques you can also let designs/strategies evolve away from your original assumptions and see if good ideas emerge from the process.

I promised to finish back on topic - If you were using a simulator to help you turn your opinions into well-founded predictions, at what level of abstraction would you want the simulator to operate? Would you want to feed in parameters like acceleration, speed, and shooting distance/accuracy? or would you want to feed in parameters like # of balls in your own trailer or # of balls successfully shot in autonomous?

In the OP's list, I see multiple levels of abstraction listed, and I'm curious if their is a big preference for operating in the details or at higher levels of abstraction. Operating at the detailed level would probably be more helpful when trying to design a robot; but it is a harder job and requires more work from the users (you).

Blake
PS: Notice that I was careful not to say that a simulator lets you determine the best way to design a robot or play the game. I did try to convey that a decent simulator helps you better understand the implications of your opinions about designs and strategies. The simulator's results will be only as good as the opinions fed into the simulation. Those opinions get replaced with real world physics, with actual human abilties, and other facts, when the rubber hits the road on game day!