Team 71's 2002 robot

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by Tim Baird

We (190) used them as well, but as anchors. The robot would drive in between two goals, latch on with cables/hooks and drive past into our zone. The anchors would push down into the carpet, raise the drive wheels, and then pull the goals back. It was literally impossible to move the robot. I had always hoped to go head-to-head with 71 to see if they could move us without ripping a hole in the carpet underneath one/both of our robots, but we never met up on the field.

The only way to move the goals 190 hung onto was to literally rip the robot in half. Didn't that happen at Battlecry that year?

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

The only way to move the goals 190 hung onto was to literally rip the robot in half. Didn't that happen at Battlecry that year?

We (311/308/180) faced 190 in the first round of the eliminations that year.

[EricLeifermann]

At the Midwest regional that year my team, 93, beat them to the center goal by about 1 sec and rammed it into them lifting the top of their robot into the middle of the two platforms lifting all their wheels of the ground causing them to not move the rest of the match. We ended up winning the match, I've never heard a crowd cheer louder in all my years since, when that happened.

[Francis-134]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

The only way to move the goals 190 hung onto was to literally rip the robot in half. Didn't that happen at Battlecry that year?

Indeed the robot did rip in half. From what I have been told, we planted to the ground and were pulled apart when two other teams decided pull on the goals we had latched onto. However, they were able to put the robot back together and go out the next match and win BattleCry. My, how things have changed .

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Jeff Rodriguez

There was no autonomous back then, so no tracking. It was all driver speed and robot quickness.

Not totally true. There was no autonomous period--that came in 2003--but I have heard that one particular team did run mostly without driver control. There were targets on the goals that sensors could see.

Remember, you don't have to have an autonomous period to be autonomous. You can run the entire match autonomously.

[Tim Baird]

Originally Posted by EricH

There were targets on the goals that sensors could see.

Tis true. The mast in the center of the goals had retroreflective tape on them that played horrible games with pretty much any photographer using flash...
But not many teams used them for their intended tracking purposes.

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Those final matches still haunt me. I was the coach for 308 back in those days. During the first match of the finals on the way to the goals a shaft in our right gearbox shifted by about 1/8" and the first stage of gears got shredded, making us basically useless for the entire finals. It still kills me. Would we have won? Who knows - but I wish I would've gotten to see the matchup played out.

I know exactly what you mean. You guys had an awesome machine. Looking back though I can truly say it was a great time, win or lose!

[Dan Petrovic]

Oh how I love these types of threads.

We get veteran members of the FIRST community coming in and sharing their wisdom of FIRST history.

It's always nice to hear stories from back before I was really involved. 2002 was my first year, as a spectator, in FIRST.

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

At the Midwest regional that year my team, 93, beat them to the center goal by about 1 sec and rammed it into them lifting the top of their robot into the middle of the two platforms lifting all their wheels of the ground causing them to not move the rest of the match. We ended up winning the match, I've never heard a crowd cheer louder in all my years since, when that happened.

You guys hit us so hard that the goal was embedded in the front plate of our robot by a good quarter inch. It took three of us to pry it off I believe.

In the second match of the Einstein finals, SPAM beat us to the center goal and our arms missed the outer goals. We were left without any goals and that robot was not designed to do anything more than move forward fast and then move forward slow. I tried to do what I could to turn the robot and the intent was to push the goals and all robots into our endzone, but that never happened as an axle got bent as our robot got smashed against the side rail. We sat the third match as 173 and 66 finished what we had started.

Ah the good old days

[Ice Berg]

Kevin,

could you describe how the walking/shuffling mechanism was designed/how it worked?

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kolodziej

I tried to do what I could to turn the robot and the intent was to push the goals and all robots into our endzone, but that never happened as an axle got bent as our robot got smashed against the side rail.

Thanks for clearing up what actually happened Kevin. I know from our vantage point at the time we could not actually see much of the match.

[Chris Hibner]

I found another video that I had on my laptop from 2002, so I uploaded it to YouTube. It is of the Midwest Regional finals. There is a great closeup of the walking filecards from 0:23 to 0:27.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4slvnvPHW8

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

I found another video that I had on my laptop from 2002, so I uploaded it to YouTube.

dang it Chris, why'd you have to find video of that match? If you watch the last 10 seconds of the match, our manipulator shot two balls into the goal. Those 2 balls cost us the match because they counted for the other alliance. The story that I remember the manipulator saying was that he was coached to empty out whatever balls we had at the end of the match. Needless to say, we replaced coach Dan with Raul in 2003 and have been doing well since...except for that little winch brake incident at Great Lakes in 2004

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by Dave Scheck

dang it Chris, why'd you have to find video of that match? If you watch the last 10 seconds of the match, our manipulator shot two balls into the goal. Those 2 balls cost us the match because they counted for the other alliance. The story that I remember the manipulator saying was that he was coached to empty out whatever balls we had at the end of the match. Needless to say, we replaced coach Dan with Raul in 2003 and have been doing well since...except for that little winch brake incident at Great Lakes in 2004

You want to hear something funny? I remembered that about this match and I was trying like crazy to find another video with a closeup, but I couldn't so I posted this one. I was hoping people would see the closeup and stop the video before it got to the end to save you guys the shame. But then you had to bring it up...

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Dave Scheck

dang it Chris, why'd you have to find video of that match? If you watch the last 10 seconds of the match, our manipulator shot two balls into the goal. Those 2 balls cost us the match because they counted for the other alliance. The story that I remember the manipulator saying was that he was coached to empty out whatever balls we had at the end of the match. Needless to say, we replaced coach Dan with Raul in 2003 and have been doing well since...except for that little winch brake incident at Great Lakes in 2004

I remember that little winch brake incident in 04. Now I feel old... That robot was pretty awesome though.

The more you guys talk about 2002 the more I wish I was around then.