Scouting in Archimedes...

[Novi Hopper]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

After two regionals, we are pretty darn good at it. But we can also harvest balls and shoot at trailers, from a five-ball magazine, and have pretty good vision aquisition. Sometimes we use our gathering and shooting capability to return balls to the corners. Our 3rd-year driver is crazy good, and our outpost shooter is deadly. Can't wait to team up with some top-notch scorers for the ultimate offensive alliance. Here's a youtube of us in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-eQgjjvxDk

I gotta say, the accuracy of that shooter is scary impressive, especially considering those shots are in Autonomous. If you don't mind me asking, how fast can your bot shoot in mid-match, assuming you've pinned a trailer?

[Greg Peshek]

Originally Posted by Novi Hopper

I gotta say, the accuracy of that shooter is scary impressive, especially considering those shots are in Autonomous. If you don't mind me asking, how fast can your bot shoot in mid-match, assuming you've pinned a trailer?

While that robot is very impressive. I don't think those shots are being taken in autonomous. Watch the drivers in the background, they're at the control station.

Quick question for 1986 - have you guys encountered a problem with people pushing you away from the fueling port while you're trying to shoot your empty cells? Or unloading on your trailer while you're stationary? Just curious.

[Novi Hopper]

Originally Posted by Greg Peshek

While that robot is very impressive. I don't think those shots are being taken in autonomous. Watch the drivers in the background, they're at the control station.

Ah, you're right. There's a shot at around 00:35 where it looks as if all the robots are somewhat paused and the starting bell goes off (which I'm assuming now is a result of overlapping clips). I must've mixed confused it with the autonomous buzzer.

[jspatz1]

No these shots are not in autonomous. We have preset loading and shooting positions and distance which allow the operator to get them done quickly, but they are manually controlled. We do sometimes use autonomous to get into position. Yes, we have had opponents try to harrass us during these throws, but when our outpost player begins filling their trailer, they usually go away. Sort of a win-win situation. Have also had some good partners throw picks for us until we are done. If we are harrassed too much we just finish it later. Haven't had too much trouble with dumpers scoring on us during our throws, we are not there very long. It is worth giving up a few points to get this job done. I would say our short range scoring rate against a pinned trailer is about 2 sec. per shot. Not fast....we can get a few in, but it is not our main focus. We have become very good at plowing large quantities of balls into our airlocks. We find they are more valuable in our human's hands than carying them around.

[Robostang 548]

548:



Robot Features:

Drivetrain: 4 independently controlled swivel modules.
Ball Pickup: Flailed roller
Shooter: 180 degree hooded turret for accurate shooting of balls 1-3 feet.
Capacity: 14 balls
Feed Rate: 3 balls/sec using cam/elevator feed system.
Empty Cell Conveyance: Empty cells can be stored separate from the feed system in our intake or brought into the feed system to be shot out.
Awards: 2x winner of the the Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award (at Kettering and Wayne State), the Xerox Creativity Award (Western Michigan District), Motorola Quality Award (Michigan State Championship).
Autonomous: 4 modes. 3 for pinning in autonomous and a "death-spin" mode that makes us impervious to human players.

Human Player:
80%+ Accuracy
58 matches, NO PENALTIES!!!

Our robot is is multifaceted machine. Built to do just about everything from pinning and scoring to delivering empty cells. We're capable of playing both good offense and defense and our drive team has over two years of experience.

[Are Jay]

Robot:

• 4 cannons (2 preloaded in front, 1 on each side)
  Great manuverability
  easily holds 12+ orbit balls in hopper
  can deliver empty cells

Human Player:

• 0 penalties
  about 75% accuracy

[BornaE]

Team 39
Drive:

8 wheels comprised of 4 corner assemblies with 1 motor and 2 wheels each. Extensive traction/friction testing showed a clear advantage to having more wheels. We can push almost anyone , even laterally.

Independent anti-spin acceleration and anti-skid braking control for each of the 4 drive assemblies.

Swerve style front wheel steering allows:
Cornering with zero wheel-slip.
Operation with the stickier static friction virtually all of the time.
Effective maneuvering and pushing out of pins.
Sharp turning, pirouette etc without the traction robbing effects of wheel
spin that a skid steered robot has.

Stability controlled steering to minimize possibility of under-steer..

Top speed is over 11 fps.

Several driver controlled manual overrides for exception conditions......... etc.

The drive system was developed entirely within the 40 lb holdback rules and was refined and driven continuously up to the day before the AZ regional.

Ball Handler:

Pneumatic catapult assisted dumper can dump 1 to 10 balls in ½ sec with excellent accuracy. This minimizes the time that we have to loiter on target and as such we are less of a target. Notice our near empty trailer in most matches. Up to 6 additional balls can be stored in the conveyor system.

Field Team:

A super experienced driver with championship RC car and 3D flying experience.
A ball handler operator than knows the guts of the software programs.
A skilled human player.

See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkuBrd_X0s

[RMS11]

WiredCats 2415- 2009 Peachtree and Palmetto Winner

-- 4WD with effective traction to help with pinning/scoring
--Screw system that holds ~20 max, although we have never had this many in a match
-- Ball travels from bottom to top in about 4 seconds
-- Turreted shooter that is mainly used for close range at this time
-- Shoots about 3-4 balls per second
-- Effective empty cell delivery, usually we carry 2 per match, in the first 30 seconds
-- Human player always plays at outpost, about 90% accurate, and penalty free

Here is a pic we put up on CD a while back
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33613

[emmell]

Originally Posted by RMS11

WiredCats 2415- 2009 Peachtree and Palmetto Winner

-- Human player always plays at outpost, about 90% accurate, and penalty free

Human player not just accurate - but totally AWESOME!!!!! She can't miss.

[jfish013]

176 is a dumper bot with a full capacity of about 15 balls. We have a wide beater bar on the bottom of our bot that works effectively picking up balls. We usually get 2 dumps of 7+ balls per round
= about 30 pts

We have two very strong human players, one who specializes in the outpost and one who likes the corners. Our corner shooter has 90%+ accuracy, and his supercell shots have won our alliances many a round
= about 25 points + supercells

We can also do some empty cell ferrying if the situation calls for it.

Total: 45+ points contribution to alliance.

Not too shabby