Best HP Gear Cyclers in the World?

FIRST General Forum
#1

As a drive coach, I am constantly in search of footage to show my drivers in order to improve their practice. With all the competitions this year it is hard to keep track of all of the best robots in the world.

My question for the world of CD is simple, who are the best hp gear cyclers in the world? This is a team that can only pickup from the HP and is capable of doing 6+ gears in a match at their best. If they do something special feel free to throw that in. If there is a specific clip that shows how amazing they are throw that in as well if you can. I want this to be a space where gear cyclers (like ourselves) can do some learning.

To start the conversation off I’ll toss out 2 obvious ones that I have been following all season. 610 and 180.

#2

The only team I have seen on the level of 610 and 180, both of whom are remarkable, is Elysium, team 1937 out of Israel.

#3

604 was fire at SVR this year. A good match could net them 8 gears IIRC.

#4

604 is the best gear delivering robot I have seen in person while 180 is the best pure loading station gearbot.

We have been watching both of them to try and pickup tricks. One of the coolest features we have seen (and are now trying to emulate) is 180’s auto which places a gear and then drives across the field, allowing them to reach 2 gears paced before the 2 minute mark.

#5

I agree with 604. Their passive gear game is remarkable. You have to be exceptional to be picked by 254 with the first overall pick.

One quality in gearbots that is often not talked about is the ability to play through defense. In this match at Glacier Peak, my team (2930) and 2928 are human-loading gear cyclers on the blue alliance. 492 has ground pickup. We muscle through the #1 alliance’s aggressive double-defense strategy to get four rotors. I believe they had to resort to this strategy because Apex’s gear intake got stuck in autonomous. The jukes, feints, drifts, and spin moves in this match are enough entertainment to justify watching.

Are there any other good video examples of speedy gearbots getting their job done in spite of heavy defense?

#6

604 is absurdly fast.

#7

Top 25 teams by scored gear contribution:

team	Scored Gears Contribution
3238	6.52
3974	6.07
2590	5.41
6329	5.36
1937	5.35
78	5.34
5687	5.30
2168	5.20
203	5.17
230	5.16
340	5.07
1778	5.03
74	5.00
604	4.99
649	4.98
1684	4.91
3255	4.90
148	4.90
1676	4.85
2607	4.79
1720	4.78
836	4.73
384	4.67
751	4.67
68	4.64

This only looks at quals at each team’s most recent event. It probably undervalues teams that had to consistently play through defense. Also, many of these teams have ground intakes.

#8

The OP is looking for best HP cyclers. I’m sure lots of the ones in your list are exclusively ground pickup or hybrid.

#9

1710 ran 7 gears in Quals 49 at North Star:

#10

Here’s a close up video of Team 20 cycling from the human player station. We hit our gear in auto, and then 5-6 in teleop. Currently our main holdup is loading at the retrieval zone, but you can expect to see some improvement to that for champs :wink:

If there’s anything I’d say to practice with your drivers, it’s cycling under defense. It’s something we had to deal with in many of our own matches, and is something that’s invaluable to winning against the 3+D strategy. Watch 2791 and 333 play against 195 in SF3 of Tech Valley.

#11

I can tell you that 6329 is one of the best gear bots in New England and only has a passive gear holder.

#12

234 in Indiana. And us ( humble brag ).

#13

The Mid-atlantic cyclers who jump to mind are 11, 834, and 1807. I looked through my scouting data to check that they’ve all hit 6 teleop gears in a match, and linked one match for each team below. It’s worth noting that in each of these instances one of their teleop gears came from their preload - that is they either did not attempt to score a gear in autonomous or failed to do so. Not sure whether this is exactly what you’re looking for in that regard.

Sample match for 11: https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2017mrcmp_qm58
Sample match for 834: https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2017mrcmp_qm65
Sample match for 1807: https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2017mrcmp_qm84

I haven’t counted every match while watching Ontario, nor do I have scouting data, but 4039 seems like a highly impressive gear cycler.

#14

Here’s a great view from the GoPro on 5801’s bot: https://youtu.be/ZElU-wQjTag

Very consistent at 5-7 per match, with auto that ends near the Launchpad line at the other end of the field ready to start teleop.

#15

I’m curious what you’re looking at here other than general ways to avoid defense.

A lot of what makes the HP bots excel versus others is slight design differences. As an example, drive train makes it easier for the driver to position the bot on both ends. Some passive slots accept gears more easily making for less margin of error and a quicker drop by the HP. These are things you can’t teach the driver to overcome as they’re build into the design.

There are things like teaching the pilot to grab the spring to pull in the gear, etc that might offer a quicker cycle. But, is there anything else you’ve seen that transcends design?

#16

I’d encourage look at both styles - feeder & ground. In doing so, see which player station the team is in. There are inherent advantages & disadvantages for each style at each station.

For passive feed + active place, check out 384. They are crazy fast, and have a couple of ways to get even faster. Some of their moves on the field look choreographed & rehearsed. They hit 6 full-field cycles in many matches, though due to some early matches their average was about the same as ours.

For passive feed + passive place, check out 6334. They typically do the same basic lines, and are extremely good at it. Their average was identical to ours.

We (1885) have active ground feed and active place. We hit 6 full-field (+ auton) gears in 3 separate matches, and a usual 4-5 full-field gears under varying levels defense. We had a couple of low matches due to figuring out nuances of an upgraded intake. We only ground intake, but we also are willing to go around any airship at any time to get around defense.

Ground vs Feed - I don’t think that debate is settled. A feeder can get in and out faster than a ground intake simply because the drivers can see every reference point on a more consistent basis. Yet feeders also have to deal with fuel, whereas most good ground intakes inherently deal with it by design. Feeders also have to figure out how to get to the same place every time, whereas there is a bit to be learned about match flow by how ground intake bots figure out where to go dynamically.

#17

I’d argue 604. They are remarkably fast for an HP gear bot. Looking forward to having the chance to play with them next week on Hopper!

#18

From the NE perspective there are a few teams to add (in numerical order):

78 - Seeded second at NEDCMP with only gears, highest ranked team with no fuel capabilities. Ground-load only, comfortably 6-7/match with defense.
131 - Demonstrated the capacity for 7-8 gears/match with only HP loading
558 - 6-8+ gears/match and *insanely *fast ground-only pickup
5687 - Yet another team that can deliver 6-8 (maybe more?) gears with HP and ground capabilities. When we played with them at NEDCMP we got the mythical 5th rotor turning!

Edit: Whoops, didn’t realize this was supposed to be HP ONLY robots. Still, only utilizing the HP+starting gear there are teams that can hit 8 gears total/match.

#19

Indiana had some really good HP cyclers that all looked to consistently score around 5 gears per match, such as 71, 234, 1018, 1741, 4272, and 6721

#20

2168 is ground intake only.