Team 71's 2002 robot

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by 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

Is that 45 shooting the ball straight up to themselves at the top of the hopper ?? To think, that was only 7 years ago and you'd be hard pressed to find a team that did that this year.

I don't have sound on right now, so the game doesn't look too exciting. I'll have to read the rules later. I too wish I was around in 2002!

[Jim Meyer]

It's furn to see all these names I recognize.

If I recall correctly the file cards were on short legs that allowed the file cards to pivot back and up when the carrier was moved forward. They were beautifully constructed.

They were having issues with being turned around at West Michigan. It was a purpose built machine, it could only move forward and couldn't really turn, so if you could turn them around they couldn't move the goals into their home zone. They had added file card material to the rear wheels to prevent this at the championship.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Is that 45 shooting the ball straight up to themselves at the top of the hopper ?? To think, that was only 7 years ago and you'd be hard pressed to find a team that did that this year.

Yeah, that was us. I think that was the lightest conveyor ever... made of nothing!

This was a typical Mark Koors invention. During brainstorming, he said "let's just throw the balls up into the basket with a wheel". The students and other mentors (me included) just said... "yeah, right". After many weeks of tweaking, this ball thrower was very efficient.

I have the dubious honor of being the coach in this match AND the dreadful F-3 match at Boilermaker this year. Maybe I should remind our alliance before each final-finals match "hey... let's try not to score on ourselves."

Andy B.

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

One of the methods to gain points in 2002 was having part of your robot in your "endzone" at the end of the match (segment closest to your alliance station). Any part of the robot counted, so many teams devised tethers they dropped and left there and/or "runners" that would drive back on a tether towards the end of the match in order to get these points while still being in position to control the goals.

If I remember right, you got points if any of your robot was in either alliance's endzone. So teams could double up their endzone points. I remember seeing a robot at the LA regional that had a 40 foot ARM that would try to reach the other zone across the field at the end of a match.

Our team had to go up against the Bionic Bulldogs (60) that year in the Finals at SVR - the robot that team 60 built would grab two goals in the first few seconds of each match and your only defense against them was to beat them there. One team rebuilt their gearing to try and basically ram 60 as hard as they could in teh first few moments of the match. During the lunch break on Friday at SVR, team 60 did a demo for a news crew where they grabbed both goals, lifted them, and then spun them at about 60 rpm. Quite a sight, however they never spun them during match play.

[Travis Hoffman]

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

Pardon my vague recollection of 2002 rules (it looks like you lost 31-30), and not to rub it in, but why didn't 519 release the goal and leave the zone to make the last two balls 111 scored a moot point?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Doug G

Quite a sight, however they never spun them during match play.

They spun 'em in L.A., at least.

I do know of at least one team that could have beaten them despite losing the race to the goals, though. 330 was capable (tested in a practice match, both agreeing) of shoving 60 under the right conditions, like with 330's 3rd goal grabber close to the floor. (It was a wedge with a hole cut for pipes, and still has the scratches from that practice match.)

[Dave Scheck]

The good 'ol wayback machine came to the rescue again. From the competition manual in terms of scoring

One (1) point for each ball if all conditions below are true:
o Contained in or supported by a goal
o Not in contact with or supported by your or your partner’s robot (opposing alliance
touching balls in a goal does not negate their value.)
o Not in contact with the carpet
o The goal is “in” your ball zone (the proper ball scoring zones are Zones 1, 2, 4, and 5)
• Ten (10) points for each goal in your goal zone (Zone 2 or 4)
• Ten (10) points for each robot in your robot zone. (Zone 1 or 5)

Zones were numbered 1-5 with 1 and 2 being on the blue side, 3 being neutral, and 4-5 being red.

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Pardon my vague recollection of 2002 rules (it looks like you lost 31-30), and not to rub it in, but why didn't 519 release the goal and leave the zone to make the last two balls 111 scored a moot point?

Yeah, I think the score was 31-30, and like you said, if 519 got out of the zone, we would have only gotten 20 points. Maybe they couldn't release? Maybe they were preventing us from running away with the goal? Who knows...

[Mike AA]

I like thinking about previous years games with LARGE objects that we moved around with the robots and had to interacts with the pieces. The giant "puck", the 3 goals in 02, the tetertotter.... things that were easy but not easy to move.

-Mike AA

[Brian C]

Looking back at how those 180lb goals were handled and how some were able to move around with over 400lbs of total weight. All of this powered by drill motors alone or drill motor/FP combinations.

I wonder what we could have done if we had CIM's, Toughboxes or AM shifters?

[RogerR]

Originally Posted by Brian C

Looking back at how those 180lb goals were handled and how some were able to move around with over 400lbs of total weight. All of this powered by drill motors alone or drill motor/FP combinations.

Originally Posted by Brian C

I wonder what we could have done if we had CIM's, Toughboxes or AM shifters?

Actually, I believe that was the first year with CIMs, though they had an integrated pinion, instead of the keyed shaft we're familiar with now.

And there were teams out there with an andymark transmission. (One team at least: 45 ), and there were multispeed transmissions of many varieties (in 2002 45 developed what would become the first iteration of what we now know as the andymark transmission).

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by Brian C

Looking back at how those 180lb goals were handled and how some were able to move around with over 400lbs of total weight. All of this powered by drill motors alone or drill motor/FP combinations.

I wonder what we could have done if we had CIM's, Toughboxes or AM shifters?

The walkers on 71 were in fact powered by CIMs. It was one heck of a reduction, but unfortunately, I do not remember off the top of my head what it was.

I wish I could provide more detail on how exactly the feet worked. It was a cam that made the feet move back and forth linearly, but due to the direction of the metal on the file cards, it would only grip when moving one direction. Beyond that, I'm the wrong person to ask.

[Herodotus]

The ridiculous capabilities of this robot are what push me ever year to try to think of a game winning strategy.The first thing that goes through my mind after seeing the game each year is "WWBD?" with this particular robot usually in mind.

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by RogerR

[color=black]

Actually, I believe that was the first year with CIMs, though they had an integrated pinion, instead of the keyed shaft we're familiar with now.

Thanks for the correction, I completely forgot about the CIM"S that year. We opted to not use them and went with the drill motors and custom made transmission that year. I actually went out to check our team 311's old 2002 machine just to make sure (it's in our shed out back)

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Is that 45 shooting the ball straight up to themselves at the top of the hopper ?? To think, that was only 7 years ago and you'd be hard pressed to find a team that did that this year.

Expect for 1250

And after seeing 71's 2002 robot, I have been hard pressed to find a robot that achieves the game challenge as well as they did back then.

[Herodotus]

I think the only other bot I've ever seen that has been about as powerful and decisive has been 1114 in 2008. I'd like to see some of these older scoring pieces brought back, they seem more impressive than the past couple of years somehow. Not the same exact game but similar scoring devices.