FASTEST 2008 ROBOT

[brentmcjunkin]

dont remember which number but i heard one could 40 fps

[Cory]

Originally Posted by brentmcjunkin

dont remember which number but i heard one could 40 fps

I don't see any realistic way a bot could accelerate to 40 ft/s in 54'. Not unless it weighed like 10 lbs

[commodoredl]

This is a bit off topic, since it concerns '07, but can someone tell me if the Behind The Design chapter on the robonauts is telling the truth?
It says that they managed to achieve 16 meters per second (52.5 feet per second) as a top speed with their V6 and crab drive. That translates to 35.7 mph, which is waaay too high for me to believe. I think they actually were only able to go 16 feet per second. Is that right?

On topic, 2560, you guys have an amazingly fast robot. Every video I saw you guys in, the announcer was always commenting on you. Definitely in the top 5 speeds this year.
I would also like to know 1024's speed, I know the perspective makes them seem faster just like 330 and 1114, but their robot seemed to keep pace with a lot of dedicated lapbots.

[BT987]

another fast robot is 2034 the incredibulls(plus a good auto)

and also i think it was 2150 at vegas that looked reall really fast

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by andrew348

2016, 118, 148 ... the list goes on.

148 has nowhere near the top speed in f/s that many other teams did. 148 just tended to be a lot more agile and better driven.

[XaulZan11]

I don't really think having the fastest robot is really that important. It may be cool to say our robot goes xx feet/sec, but how often does that really come into play? I think being quick or efficient in all tasks (in this game turning, pickup, hurdling) is more important than just straight ahead speed. It's like drafting a player lineman based on his forty time; only the first few yards (getting off the line/pulling) really matter.

[RyanN]

I agree with XaulZan11. Even though some robots may go up to 30FPS, how much pushing power do they have so they can make laps? I know 148 was faster than us, but in the Bayou Regional, we could made more laps than they did, and I believe we actually held the record for the most laps in a single match at the Bayou Regional. Don't quote me on this because I don't have concrete facts and I'm going off of memory and scouting.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by RyanN

I agree with XaulZan11. Even though some robots may go up to 30FPS, how much pushing power do they have so they can make laps? I know 148 was faster than us, but in the Bayou Regional, we could made more laps than they did, and I believe we actually held the record for the most laps in a single match at the Bayou Regional. Don't quote me on this because I don't have concrete facts and I'm going off of memory and scouting.

We didn't really focus on lapping in New Orleans. Most matches we were playing a defensive role. This greatly reduced our lap count. As the season went on and the game developed, so did our strategies. This resulted in drastically different play between St. Louis (week 1) and New Orleans (week 5).

Our team focuses on continuous improvement. We knew that bringing our St Louis game to New Orleans would be foolish. (Though, I think we all wish the auton would have been up to the STL level.)

364 has an incredible machine, and they are a great team. I'm looking forward to seeing them again at IRI. It was cool to see such a great hurdler could also function well as a lap-bot.

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

148 has nowhere near the top speed in f/s that many other teams did.

This is true. We are geared at about 20 ft/s free-speed. During the build season we were geared as high as 30 ft/s free-speed, but this turned out to be foolish.

Our goal was to build a robot which was fast on the field, not fast in a drag race. Our experimentation and iteration showed that we were faster and more consistent with a slower top-speed (it is weird to describe 20fps as "slower").

This is why we would get beat easily by some other lap-bots in drag-races, or in open-field lap-races. However, this system was not intended for either of those scenarios, ours was designed to compete in a FIRST Overdrive match, with 5 other robots. *shrug*

We may be one of the fastest robots, but we are not the fastest.
Kudos to all the teams who can toast us!

-John

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by JVN

We didn't really focus on lapping in New Orleans. Most matches we were playing a defensive role. This greatly reduced our lap count. As the season went on and the game developed, so did our strategies. This resulted in drastically different play between St. Louis (week 1) and New Orleans (week 5).

Our team focuses on continuous improvement. We knew that bringing our St Louis game to New Orleans would be foolish. (Though, I think we all wish the auton would have been up to the STL level.)

364 has an incredible machine, and they are a great team. I'm looking forward to seeing them again at IRI. It was cool to see such a great hurdler could also function well as a lap-bot.


This is true. We are geared at about 20 ft/s free-speed. During the build season we were geared as high as 30 ft/s free-speed, but this turned out to be foolish.

Our goal was to build a robot which was fast on the field, not fast in a drag race. Our experimentation and iteration showed that we were faster and more consistent with a slower top-speed (it is weird to describe 20fps as "slower").

This is why we would get beat easily by some other lap-bots in drag-races, or in open-field lap-races. However, this system was not intended for either of those scenarios, ours was designed to compete in a FIRST Overdrive match, with 5 other robots. *shrug*

We may be one of the fastest robots, but we are not the fastest.
Kudos to all the teams who can toast us!

-John

I definitely noticed 148's transition to a defensive bot, especially at the championship. I congratulate your team's success. I believe I watched one of the videos with your team geared to 30FPS. When Tumbleweed went around a corner, it tipped on its side (can't really say one or two wheels). I would hate to keep control of the robot going at that speed.

Our robot is geared right around 15FPS, with 6WD and 4 CIMS. We could have been much faster if we had wished, but we ended up going with a mid-speed robot with a lot of power. In autonomous we had to ramp up our start because we would make a wheelie. I believe our robot is fast enough and strong to be competitive. I only really wish our hurdling ability was a little better, but we were worried about our COG with more mechanisms toward the top of the robot.

[ParkerF]

Originally Posted by RyanN

I definitely noticed 148's transition to a defensive bot, especially at the championship. I congratulate your team's success. I believe I watched one of the videos with your team geared to 30FPS. When Tumbleweed went around a corner, it tipped on its side (can't really say one or two wheels). I would hate to keep control of the robot going at that speed.

I almost want to say we filmed that after gearing the speed down, but John would have to confirm that. I can't remember exactly when things happened during the build anymore hehe. The main reason we never tipped as far up like that during the season is the wheelie-balls we added underneath.

I also thought 1114 was pretty fast, but they assured me it was only geared around 15 f/s.

If I had to choose my favorite 'fast bot' it would definitely be Cheesy Poofs. I just loved their robot and their techniques on how to not only have a fast drive, but fast slide, etc.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by francistexas

I also thought 1114 was pretty fast, but they assured me it was only geared around 15 f/s.

It depends on how you look at it. If you assume 100% efficiency throughout our system, and a 5500 RPM free speed for the CIMs, theoretically we're geared for 18.4 fps in high gear. That being said, the 100% efficiency assumption is clearly flawed. Using some standard efficiency numbers, we figure a more accurate top speed for our robot is between 15-16 fps, as quoted by Parker.

So, we were pretty fast, but definitely not the fastest. (I'm sure there's some Canadian metric vs. imperial joke to be made in all of this, but I'll leave it to someone wittier than myself.)

[ZsHeRm]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I don't really think having the fastest robot is really that important. It may be cool to say our robot goes xx feet/sec, but how often does that really come into play? I think being quick or efficient in all tasks (in this game turning, pickup, hurdling) is more important than just straight ahead speed. It's like drafting a player lineman based on his forty time; only the first few yards (getting off the line/pulling) really matter.

your right it is much better to be a well rounded team...but as for our team(2560) we chose to be simple and fast as a rookie team. i was just wondering as a rookie team how we did in comparison to veteran teams at our chosen field. as for going 30FPS on the small playing field we programed our motors to "brake" for the turns wich helped out emensly. but if someone got in front of us we would do a few revolutions trying to get around them.

[Richard Wallace]

Some operational figure-of-merit for lap-running performance, other than gearing and wheel size, would be more interesting. Maybe average number of laps completed during teleo? Or maybe highest qualifying seed?

148 seeded #1 at St. Louis, and Tumbleweed certainly looked faster than most of the robots there. Maybe 1098's little red Ferrari was faster (?); they seeded #2 at Oklahoma City.

Which other racerbots seeded high?

[Dancin103]

102...they are qwicked fast. I believe 27 feet persecond correct me if I'm worng.

[Suspect_Deezy]

i believe we maxed out at 11 laps at Bayou(according to Bomb Sqaud) with Bob only going 15ft/s.

we also saw 148 in Bayou, we just had no idea you guys were playing the defensive role.

u were known for the laps in St. Luis so when we saw you guys we were confused.