They didn’t seem to throw any litter, so it seemed like they were gunning for the 254 score. Poetic.
My question is what are the rollers on the ramp and how does the ramp not slide very much during the match or bounce when it is tipped over. Does anyone have a good picture of it?
In one match they just stopped at 254 points and sat waiting for the clock to run down.
254’s ramp looked like it used ball bearing rollers. I would have been more impressed if they hadn’t totally ignored rule T6. They just had one guy carrying the ramp separately. I guess if the rule doesn’t have a penalty it doesn’t exist. There was one time that the ramp ended up with its outer end back at the wall. I didn’t see if it fell wrong or got pushed. 254 didn’t even try to get the totes off it, they just mined the landfill.
Another thing I wondered about was the stack(s) the tether was touching at the end of the match. You can’t really see it in the videos. The refs weren’t checking if the tether was supporting the totes. Judging from the blue box in the game manual the stack(s) should have been de-scored. They definitely weren’t doing that. If they did, it could really hurt 254, as it is tough to control such a long tether.
Still, the Poofs were way ahead of of everyone else. 1678 couldn’t do as many stacks and probably messed up more often. 971 had a jamming problem getting totes from the human player. 368 had a lot of trouble with their 3 tote autonomous, although they seemed to get it working in the later matches. They also had problems with mis-fed totes. 846’s ramp tended to jam and they had a lot of problems with stacks falling over.
Our own robot (670) amazed me with its reliability. We improved more since the CVR than 254 did, with about 3x the scoring. The only real blemish was when the drive team decided to try to do a six stack with bin instead of our usual five stack in the semifinals and it fell over because it was too heavy. They really should have tried that on the practice field first… We were only fighting over 3rd vs. 4th place anyway. We were too slow to make it into the finals.
Because we didn’t want to risk knocking over any stacks just for another 12 points. With 6 full stacks and 15 seconds left on the clock going for another 6 totes when the landfill and HP stations are both almost empty is just asking for trouble.
254’s ramp looked like it used ball bearing rollers. I would have been more impressed if they hadn’t totally ignored rule T6. They just had one guy carrying the ramp separately. I guess if the rule doesn’t have a penalty it doesn’t exist.
The blue box on T6 clarifies this quite well, they put the ramp inside the robot when no one was carrying it so it definitely fit in transport config. Several other teams also transported their robots pre-assembled. Refs have been told to encourage teams to do this to speed up field reset times.
Another thing I wondered about was the stack(s) the tether was touching at the end of the match. You can’t really see it in the videos. The refs weren’t checking if the tether was supporting the totes. Judging from the blue box in the game manual the stack(s) should have been de-scored. They definitely weren’t doing that. If they did, it could really hurt 254, as it is tough to control such a long tether.
A stack is scored if it is supported completely by only the scoring platform, if their tether was supporting the stack it wouldn’t be scored, but it would be pretty apparent when their tether was under it as the stack would get knocked over when they tried to drive away from it. I trust the refs that they were well aware of this.
Our own robot (670) amazed me with its reliability. We improved more since the CVR than 254 did, with about 3x the scoring. The only real blemish was when the drive team decided to try to do a six stack with bin instead of our usual five stack in the semifinals and it fell over because it was too heavy. They really should have tried that on the practice field first… We were only fighting over 3rd vs. 4th place anyway. We were too slow to make it into the finals.
No need to put down others when applauding your own accomplishments. 254 went from 2 stacks at CVR to hitting 4 stacks plus co-op with time left over at the end of every match reliably; bumping their qual average from 104 to 200 since CVR. If that’s not impressive improvement I don’t know what is.
They do use bearings for their ramp, either 0.500 or 0.625 OD mounted via 3/16 pop rivets. The frame is a carbon fiber tube with aluminum ribs and aluminum tubing.
Thanks for assuming we were cheating, but if you had asked you would have found out the inspectors and refs decided teams should demonstrate that they can establish a compliant transportation configuration, but in the interests of saving time during setup should bring the robot on in it’s starting configuration.
Steven- if you are indeed a mentor of your team, I implore you to read your post as if you were a student on your team (or another team for that matter). What kind of message are you sending by trying to point out tiny nuances of other teams (who are obviously remarkably skilled)?
Quite honestly, its pathetic. Sorry for being so blunt, but your post really rubs me in a bad way.
-Brando
On the topic of high scores, I have watched several regionals and I believe Finals match 1 is the closest I have seen to utilizing all of the cans. If not for the can war mishap that gave 971 such problems during that match, I believe that would have been the high score of the season (excluding co-op because I really want to believe my conjectures to be true. XD). It also seems to be the first time an alliance’s scoring ability was hindered by the result of a can war and lack of cans.
I’d like to think this match demonstrates that stealing cans REALLY well might actually be a possible method of defense. I know it has been hypothesized before, but this is the first time I have seen any real world effect.
Of course, if anyone can tell me of a match where there actually HAS maxed out can usage, I would love to admire it.
And that has been happening since the first week when they found out that trying to follow the rule slowed down the competition schedule too much. All of the other competitions have has the starting configuration set up since.
And 1678 scored 220 and 210 in quals matches, albeit also with very strong alliance members (971 & 846; 2085) that made those scores possible. The max for a team running on its own appears to be about 190.
BTW, the PNW districts had an amazing average score of 123. SVR was at 72; Lone Star at 84.
Finals match 1 at the Oklahoma regional used all the recycling cans (as I’m sure a couple other top matches have). Here is a picture of the stacks:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/41853
If either of the alliances had been able to get even 3 of the middle bins instead of 2 they would have been much more likely to win.
While 670 made a tremendous improvement this year, which you should be quite proud of, implying that you went past 971, 368, 846 (and you didn’t even mention the best historic improver, 2085) would be disinenguous. Be happy about your accomplishments, but don’t rest on your laurels.
I’m sure there are quite a few. I remember this one from Waterloo:
edit- oops, scrap that, bad memory. There’s one dropped can on the floor at the end. Close though!
The robot inspection process was complete as every other regional, weight, BOM, transport configuration, etc…
The event ruling was if the starting configuration fit within the area of your robot cart then it was acceptable to transport to the field assembled.
We were using a simple hand truck for moving our robot around. If we orientated our robot so that our pickup system and lift prongs were not protruding, we could stay assembled.
This did truly speed up the match turn around times. And did not create any unsafe transportation conditions at the event that I was aware of.
It was our first time at SVR and would love to come back again. Thanks to everyone that made the regional a pleasant experience. Was great to see and work with the many high level teams showing how it can be done. Amazing!
Good luck to everyone heading off to champs!
Aloha!
Shout out to Devin, thanks for taking time out to “talk story” with us and helping with ideas for the future. Mahalo!
PNW had so many good teams that our #6 alliance had a Semi Finals average of 201.33 and STILL missed making the finals by 2/3 of a point. Does anyone know if any other competitions had 200+ SF averages that didn’t make finals? This was teams 3663, 4450 and 4911.
It was my pleasure! I had a fantastic time at SVR meeting teams and making new friends. Working and talking with 3880, 5026, 5027, 254, 2035, 2135, 115, and 5728 was a blast! My only regret was not having enough time to get to know more teams. It seems my contacts list grows a few teams every event Citrus Circuits attends.
Actually not accurate to state all other competitions have had the starting configuration set up allowed prior to reaching the field. At the LVR, we could NOT do so as the head referee decided to adhere to the letter of the rule…though as a member of the planning committee I tried to talk him into the “relaxation” of the rule since so many events had reported doing so in prior weeks. It was decided that we would wait and see if we were having trouble maintaining a reasonable cycle time. As it turned out we managed to stay on time and stayed within the rule. The question now is what will the practice be at Champs? It would be nice if FIRST would address this issue and all of us enter the event with the same expectations.
Agreed,
At the Hawaii Regional the transport configuration was required. Our team learned to quickly install and tear down our lift arms.
A few quiet verbal warnings might have been given. Well more like mentions on the loud speaker letting the audience know what the teams were up to before and after each match to comply with the transport rules.
Every team managed to comply without penalties.
Although after going to a much larger event I saw how much time was saved.
At the champs with so many variations and possible factory bots, I hope they do require the transport configuration. It was part of the design process that kept many elaborate designs shelved.
Looking forward to the championships!
Aloha
Same, at Utah we were required to enter the field in transport configuration, then after the match, go back into transport on the field, or sometimes in a rush you were allowed to do so immediately off the field. At Lone Star we weren’t required to go into transport if it was safe to configure in the queue.