What's your plan for Autonomous?

[Monochron]

In Auto we'll start by boiling tea and warming up crumpets using our always-on compressor. There is nothing that says 'gracious professionalism' like making brunch for your opponents.

[baumgartensam]

Our plan is to start our 3d printer right at the beginning of autonomous so that the robot finishes printing with enough time to stack all the yellow totes.

Yes, we are 3d printing all of the ICs as well

We use our flux capacitor in a non-traditional manner to speed up the chemical and physical reactions occurring in our robot and 3d printer allowing us to print a robot complete with electronics in under 5 seconds leaving us 10 seconds to stack the yellow totes. We decided it would be too ambitious and unrealistic to stack the gray ones as well

[aldaeron]

Robot uses 16 MiniCIM based quadcopter to float above auto zone and uses portal gun to stack all 3 yellow totes and get 3 cans into auto zone from step.

[baumgartensam]

In all seriousness, I've noticed a lot of teams are planning on doing a 3 tote autonomous and I will be interested to see at competitions how many can actually pull it off. Scouting, as always, will be extremely important.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by baumgartensam

Our plan is to start our 3d printer right at the beginning of autonomous so that the robot finishes printing with enough time to stack all the yellow totes.

Yes, we are 3d printing all of the ICs as well

We use our flux capacitor in a non-traditional manner to speed up the chemical and physical reactions occurring in our robot and 3d printer allowing us to print a robot complete with electronics in under 5 seconds leaving us 10 seconds to stack the yellow totes. We decided it would be too ambitious and unrealistic to stack the gray ones as well

I love the idea, but 3d printing an actuator that meets FRC standards (that is, a list) sounds pretty steep. To my ears, "How do you 3-d print a COTS part?" sounds a lot like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

To my ears, "How do you 3-d print a COTS part?" sounds a lot like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

The first thing you print is a big sign saying "all these parts are available for purchase in the lobby"?

[1493kd]

I have been seeing many matches that robots do nothing in auto. We are working on a few options and one we are discussing trying out it using our "arms" to pull 2 grey totes out of the landfill and pull them back onto the scoring platform with our robot backing into the auto zone.

I know this wont get us any points in auto but could set up for fast stacking in telop. Has anyone tried to do this? Is it legal. I search the Q+A and manual and cant find anything saying it isn't.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by 1493kd

I have been seeing many matches that robots do nothing in auto. We are working on a few options and one we are discussing trying out it using our "arms" to pull 2 grey totes out of the landfill and pull them back onto the scoring platform with our robot backing into the auto zone.

I know this wont get us any points in auto but could set up for fast stacking in telop. Has anyone tried to do this? Is it legal. I search the Q+A and manual and cant find anything saying it isn't.

It's totally legal to start stacking grey totes during autonomous, and I'm honestly surprised no one has done it yet

[1493kd]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

It's totally legal to start stacking grey totes during autonomous, and I'm honestly surprised no one has done it yet

Me to, that's why I wanted to make sure before we went ahead and added it to our auto possibilities. See you guys in a few weeks and best of luck at TVR

[nstephenh]

At palmetto regional I noticed a few teams tell us that they simply don't do autonomous, because they wanted to be aligned with the human player station. Personally, I think all teams should at least move forward in auto.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by nstephenh

At palmetto regional I noticed a few teams tell us that they simply don't do autonomous, because they wanted to be aligned with the human player station. Personally, I think all teams should at least move forward in auto.

We are planning to start each match in front of the HP station, and not move into the auto zone. If both of our partners have proven that they can get in the auto zone >90% of the time, we'll consider using our drive forward auto, otherwise it's a waste of time.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes

We are planning to start each match in front of the HP station, and not move into the auto zone. If both of our partners have proven that they can get in the auto zone >90% of the time, we'll consider using our drive forward auto, otherwise it's a waste of time.

I wouldn't have set the bar that high, but for four points, agreed that if any alliance partners are struggling with this, it's not worth taking the time to drive back to where you want to begin teleop. Unless you or an alliance partner brought game pieces, the auto zone is definitely not it.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I wouldn't have set the bar that high, but for four points, agreed that if any alliance partners are struggling with this, it's not worth taking the time to drive back to where you want to begin teleop. Unless you or an alliance partner brought game pieces, the auto zone is definitely not it.

The reason I set the bar this high is because the stars have to align perfectly for us to get any points. If both my partners have 90% drive forward auto modes, and we have a 90% drive forward auto mode. Our expected auto score will be 4*(.9)^3 ~= 3 points, and that's assuming our auto modes do not interfere with each other in any way.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes

The reason I set the bar this high is because the stars have to align perfectly for us to get any points. If both my partners have 90% drive forward auto modes, and we have a 90% drive forward auto mode. Our expected auto score will be 4*(.9)^3 ~= 3 points, and that's assuming our auto modes do not interfere with each other in any way.

Oh, I thought the 90% was after you had multiplied the numbers together. I was also thinking of a combined ~75%.