Pre-Ship Scrimage Results

[Joe3]

I wasnt fortunate to make it to one of these scrimages today, as we just had too much to do on the robot. However, I was wondering how they went. In the past, they have shown significant insight into the game. So, if anyone can post some reflections on them, I think it would be a great help to all. Thanks.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I was at the UTC Scrimmage today, and did some refing. Overall, I think teams were too worried about getting their robot working, to really play the game the way they intended to.
Anyway, some of the strategies used were:
Horde small balls into HP. Most balls wins
Use big ball. I only saw 2 teams do it succesfully, only 1 of them more than once.
Block chutes with moveable goals.
Hang on bar right away / prevent other team from hanging (The finals came down to the 2 robots who hung the best facing off).

Thats really it.
Here's some pictures I got of robots and good action shots
And here's the rest of them. These ones are dark or blurry.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Use big ball. I only saw 2 teams do it succesfully, only 1 of them more than once.

Was that us.. because we did a couple times in practice rounds.. but then in the finals we kept losing pneumatic pressure and out main arm gear down sprocket broke in half Well anyway we were team 195... "The Ghetto Bot" (the one with PVC arms, orange gloves, and a zip tied on sign from our pits at nats)

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

Was that us.. because we did a couple times in practice rounds.. but then in the finals we kept losing pneumatic pressure and out main arm gear down sprocket broke in half

No, sorry. I didn't see the practice rounds. I showed up at about 1pm. Team 839 did it a couple times, and buzz (175) did it once.

How did autonomous go?
Seems like most teams were making sure they could move in auto mode. Not much was programed. Buzz went forward a little and spun once. Other teams went forward also.
How much contact was there?
The contact happened when another team was blocking ball chutes, or keeping another bot from getting on top of the platform. Not nearly as much contact as the previous 2 years.
What strategies were sucessful?
One bot corals small balls, while the other hangs. Or the non-hanger keeps opposing robots from hanging.
What strategies weren't?
Well, alot of teams pushed small balls, but not very well. Very few teams did anything with the large ball.
Was hanging big?
The biggest deciding factor.
How important were the smalls balls and the big balls?
If you can get 10+ small balls your in good shape to win. If you can add a large ball to that they you're golden. A large ball with few small balls may not cut it.
What sorts of mehcanisms proved effective and inneffective?
Quality over quantity. Stick to one task and do it well. More specificlly for you: A simple hook to grab the bar works like a charm. A simple pincher for the large ball works well.
What were the common characteristics of high scorign robots?
They could hang. Or they could hold 5+ small balls.
What were the biggest challenges for most bots?
Geting up the 6" step. Alot tried, few succeeded.
How important was speed? Torque? Control?
1) Control
2) Speed
3) Torque
Were alot of people able to get up the ramp?
By ramp, I assume you mean the tiny stairs. Only if they're robot was narrow enough to get around the staionary goal.



Hope that answers your questions.

[MrsT]

In DC we didn't keep score....it was just 5 min practices in front of the huge crowd at the Engineering Week festivites in the National Building Museum

*None of us had effective autonomous (we're working on it tomorrow!)

*The red balls were a problem..........even a movable GOAL got up on one!

*Since it was practice rather than matches -- there wasn't really any game strategy revealed.....everyone was just troubleshooting their own bots.

Lisa T

[Andy A.]

I am very interested in small ball handling 'bots. How did they do? How did they do it? Were there any notable ball handling 'bots?

Also, out of curoisity, did any teams have a good way of getting the yellow balls on to the field instead of just nocking them off the tee?

-Andy A.

[Ianworld]

A few questions:
How effective were wings for aidiing in pushing balls into the corral?
What did bots with many capabilities focus on?
Did people push balls out of the ring on purpose and to what effect?
Were goal grabbers necessary for pulling goals out of corners?
Were robots that were holding a big ball attacked because they were valuble?

~Ian

[SarahB]

Originally Posted by Ianworld

A few questions:
How effective were wings for aidiing in pushing balls into the corral?

Most attempts to push balls into the coral with wings or just with the robot weren't very sucessful at UTC. From my observation, the only teams that got more than a couple balls in were those who picked up the balls then spit them out to the human player. Also, a lot of teams got 10 point penalties for breaking the plane of the ball shute so I think that discouraged teams from trying to push in balls.

Were goal grabbers necessary for pulling goals out of corners?

Most of the teams at UTC only moved the goals by pushing them. However, since so many teams were trying to block the human player shutes with the movable goals, I think it would be very benificial to have a goal grabber so you can reopen your ball coral.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Were alot of people able to get up the ramp?
By ramp, I assume you mean the tiny stairs. Only if they're robot was narrow enough to get around the staionary goal.

Do you mean to tell me that the teams who got up on the platforms were only the ones who went up the tiny steps and were small enough to go around the stationary goal?? None came in from the sides??

How did the hangers hang??? Did they go up the platform(s) and then hang or just reach in for the bar from the carpeted level?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

no one at utc grabbed the bar from the ground. There were only a few teams that could hang succesfully EVERY round. Aces high's bot was insane. Look out for them this year.

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

no one at utc grabbed the bar from the ground. There were only a few teams that could hang succesfully EVERY round. Aces high's bot was insane. Look out for them this year.

Another bot to look out for this year is 782. They hang like crazy and they are good at it. They are able to get around the stationary or go up the big step.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Do you mean to tell me that the teams who got up on the platforms were only the ones who went up the tiny steps and were small enough to go around the stationary goal?? None came in from the sides??

How did the hangers hang??? Did they go up the platform(s) and then hang or just reach in for the bar from the carpeted level?

No. There were a few teams that went up the 6" step, but it was much slower than the tiny stairs. Ther were also alot of teams that attempted going up the 6" step but didn't make it.

All the hanging bots had some sort of arm that extended up with a hook on the end. Like this and this. Both of those were on the platform when they reached for the bar.
There was one robot that tried reaching from the carpet (178). When then hooked the bar and started putting weight on their hook, it snapped off.

[uzneko]

just curious, did any of the other scrimmages besides DC have the evil small balls of doom? or were they closer to the official size that FIRST put out?
because in DC that seemed to be one of the biggest problems for everyone... running over the majorly deflated evilness

Did any of the other scrimmage groups have that problem too, or are we just 'special'?

[Korbin]

at AZ we had what I think are the standard size balls, but I did not see a team that did not have trouble herding them due to how easy it is to ride up on them.

I know that a few teams were able to handle the 2x ball, but that did them very little good without any balls....

the thing that i learned most from the invitational this year was that we, and most other teams mis judged the importance of the different ways of playing the game. We thought that anyone with a moving base would be able to herd balls, but that is defently not true. the only ones that will be succesfull at it is those that actually gather them. These teams will be the ones to go far in the alliance pickings because the teams that went all out will be able to hang and cap, and do all that, but wont dominate like they thought without at bot that gathers.

so the way i se things working out is this:
the teams that do everything will end up doing one thing (befor the alliance picking), wich will probubly be hanging, because that is the only thing that you can do by yoursealf without a gathering alliance partner. and when the gather bots pick them because they can cap, and hang well, then they will cap when the big goal is full, and then go to hang. This is the alliance them that will win in every reagenal i bet.

furthermore I am predicting that all of the bots that gather balls will be picked, or picking. This is because that robot design was considers less ambitious by most teams, and they decided to build a hanging-2x handling bot.

[sanddrag]

The highest scoring bot I saw was one that parked under the ball dumb got ALL the balls, drove over to the ball chute, and deposited them all.