REWARD OFFERED: A CAPPED VISION TETRA ON THE CENTER FIELD GOAL

[Wayne C.]

Well? The season is winding down-

did anybody cap that center goal yet?


WC

[phrozen solyd]

Keep an eye on 980 - they capped the high goal in autonomous with the vision tetra on the practice field at SVR, but they didn't do it on the competition field. They got pretty close a couple times on Thursday, though.

[Michael Hill]

I believe 111 was able to grab the vision tetra during the finals in Chicago, but they did not cap.

[Mike]

I'd be willing to bet that this will be done during the championship.

Team 971 made a couple of attempts at SVR, and got close to picking up the
vision tetra a couple of times. Part of the problem was their camera got smashed early Friday, so they only actually had the camera working for about 4 or 5 matches. (In a act of gracious professionalism, another local team not at SVR, donated their camera, and a mentor drove across town Friday to get it.)

According to conversation I had with the team members, they could cap a center goal in practice, but only in 19 to 20 seconds. Fifteen was just too short a time interval. Another note two of the team members on 971 (and the ones responsible for programming) are FLL graduates, and have been involved since 2000.


If any one does this at Nats, it will be great, but the refs probably will be dumbfounded about awarding the bonus tetras, since nobody has any experience in this area!

[Bill Moore]

Considering the amount of time it takes to locate the tetra, properly grasp it, locate the center goal and raise your arm to get it capped, FIRST probably didn't allow enough time for this to be an effective form of scoring. There are too many other strategies that can be played in 15 seconds that are not as time intensive. If autonomous lasted longer, say 30 seconds, then more teams would have been forced to address the capping vision tetras in autonomous.

[Wayne C.]

I guess you guys reinforce my point. The 15 seconds is probably too short to find and cap the middle goal. SieH2OBots got VERY close at NJ- about 6 inches to the right!!

But the task is a shot in the dark.

My guys looked at the effort required for the reward gained when we planned our game this season and didn't see the benefit of it.

Maybe someone will prove me wrong. See y'all in Atlanta

WC

[Goldeye]

694 tried it before shipping the bot. Our main trouble was poor lighting in our test environment - we had to use red instead of yellow as goal targets, and even then we had trouble seeing what we wanted to. Between that, drive train changes and other things, the numbers we tried to drive with weren't working any more, there were quirks in our tetra-seeking and color switching methods...and not enough time to get it working straight. And there was certainly not enough time to fix it at the regionals. However, the bot would have been fast enough to do it within the 15 seconds. A fast drive train and fast arm is all you need :/ we had both. It just hapened that the bots that were fast enough to do it weren't the ones trying to use the camera.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

My guys looked at the effort required for the reward gained when we planned our game this season and didn't see the benefit of it.

That's true, we could've made ours cap a side goal and knock down the hanging tetra during autonomous. It would work waaaaaay more consistently then capping. But we didn't. The US could always land a man on the moon, so why don't we just keep on going there? After all, we could do it every time . So why are we trying to go to Mars? It's because it's bigger, better, and bolder. Doing what nearly no other team can do, and defying all those who say it can't be done. That reward is a lot more than 9 points.

[Termite233]

I'm pretty sure 233 could try...meaning I think we have an autonomous program for this...but I know we've never used it...I think it's mostly that everyone is afraid it won't work...

[funstuff]

During the Lone Star Regional in one of the qualifying matches, Team 624 CRyptonite was able to pick up and place a vision tetra on the center goal using the camera. However, the tetra did not fall into place and was not counted. From what I have heard, this is the closest anyone has come to capping the center goal in a qualifying match. We were the only team at the Lone Star to use the vision system. (I would like to note that it was occasionally distracted by the yellow and black caution tape that was around the gates onto the field.)

I would really like to thank our two student programmers Jesse and Shaon for doing all of the code. They're awesome.

[Dan Richardson]

Yeah that cap was amasing.. it was completely square to the goal.. I was soo upset it didn't fall on the goal, they also almost called the side goals a bunch of times.

We were really pulling for you, I'm almost certain if you were able to attend nationals you would have gotten that tiki trophy.. Someone should really post a picture of how it was.

Dan

[Lost_Era]

At the Palmetto Regional, Team 281 came almost as close to capping the vision tetra on the center goal in autonomous. We had the tetra over the goal but drove a bit too far, and when we hit the goal, the tetra bounced off and fell on the other side. We are still hoping to do it at Nationals.

My team (854) came very close at the Toronto Canada Regional, I am not sure but I think we were the only team at the Waterloo Regional and Toronto Regional using the camera, but at the Toronto one we missed by like 1-2 inches. It hit the top of the center goal but fell off when our robot backed up.

[thoughtful]

i would say there are about 6 teams that have a realistic possibility of doing this at the nationals. However, these Brilliant teams also need a tad of luck at thier side to accomplish this in the 15 seconds. I think that the probability that we see this happen at the nationals is 0.167.