3481 Bronc Botz Video - CHAMPS Preview and Regional Season-Wrap

FIRST General Forum
1

3481 Robot name: KNIGHTmare

I am so proud of this team we built from nothing in just 5 years.

Last 2 seasons NO engineers on the team, just high school students and myself, a retired insurance guy, NO mill, and we’ve been awarded in 2015 and 2016 seasons trophies for:

1- Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi
1- Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors
3- Quality Award sponsored by Motorola

For CHAMPS we’re looking to build on our performances on the field at Alamo, Hub City and our really good showing at Bayou (which we’ve analyzed and digested) and are aiming to best our 2012 CHAMPS showing in the Archimedes Elims… it’s very exciting for all of us.

Please wish our students “good luck” at CHAMPS!!

–Michael Blake

2

You guys have a phenomenal robot. With the additions you made with auto and scaling, I don’t doubt you guys will be up there with the best. Good luck in St. Louis!

3

Really love the robot! Was that a 2 ball auto?

4

I’ve gotten some push-back on the song lyrics even though they bleeped the cuss-word out twice.

It’s hard for me to understand these lyrics on newer songs < I’m a THREE DOG NIGHT guy > until I read the lyrics which I just did.

I wouldn’t have approved the use of this song if I knew these lyrics in advance. Catchy-tune, questionable lyrics, unfortunately.

QUESTION: Does the CD community think a song like this steps over the line with teenagers in the FIRST community? Is it borderline lyrics for FIRST?

THANKS for your feedback…

–Michael Blake

5

First off, great intro - it looks especially nice.

As far as the song choice go, a better choice could have doubtlessly been made, but you can’t really change that now. In the future, I’d advise to ALWAYS read the lyrics to a song before it is put into a video. Generally, I prefer music without words to begin with, but I realize other people have different preferences.

6

Thank you for the feedback much appreciated.

And you can be sure I will read lyrics before they even start editing future videos…

–Michael Blake

7

THANK YOU for the compliment, Landon… still working the bugs on Auto and climbing… you know how difficult it is that last 10%-5%-0% you need to solve in order to be at reliable use level… tough to achieve.

–Michael Blake

8

Hey Clayton! NO, sorry no 2 ball Auton.

BUT we have a crazy Auton in reserve that might cause some opposing teams some consternation… :wink:

THANKS for the love on the bot!

–Michael

9

Loved the video! Just curious as the the vision program you use?
#Ps love the tube of zip ties at the end of the video. Looks like a good climbing mechanism and looking forward to seeing you at worlds!

10

We wrote vision tracking program using C++ and it runs on the laptop… we’re still tightening the bolts on it interacting with the navX board and various Auton-modes.

I can put you in touch with our programming lead, Ryan Cooper, if you want more detail than I can provide… just PM me here or send an email to [email protected] and I’ll get you Ryan’s contact info.

–Michael Blake

11

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s just music. It looks like you have a great robot, best of luck in St. Louis!

12

THANKS for that feedback… much appreciated.

–Michael Blake

13

Best of luck in St. Louis! It was too bad that we only got to play against you at Bayou and didn’t get the chance to play with you. Hope to see you all at some of the off-season events too.

14

THANK YOU for the good wishes… :wink:

I can’t complain about our match schedule at Bayou (I can at Alamo and Hub City - LOL) but it would’ve been nice to play with the DiscoBots at our first out of state competition.

Being out of the state we did feel camaraderie with the other Texas teams there–it was a neat experience. We officially love Bayou.

We’ll see you in the off-season for sure…

–Michael

15

Ah… I was wrong… new vision-tracking program was written in C#.

–Michael Blake