Let’s see–2 continuous-turn pots on the drive and 1 10-turn pot for the arm, plus a gyro and (I think) 1-2 accelerometers. I think you mean no vision sensors.
(Well, and no other really cool sensors.)
I think that the best robot overall is the one that works the way it is designed to. To further separate that is almost pointless, though I’ll add that the best one is the one that inspires the most people.
Hah. Far from it.
I’ll do from the years I was in FIRST 03-07.
03: 111, their design and programming for the year was perfect. They were light years ahead of anyone else with some of the stuff they were putting out.
04: 67, a true offensive powerhouse. They put up over 200 points in a match by themselves. No one could play defense against them because they were a giant wedge, it was genius.
04: 254, another team that could put up tremendous numbers, it amazed me they didn’t go any farther at Nationals.
05: 330, another wedge implemented robot. They had drop down wedges that when you would try to push them out of the way, they would push you out of the way. It was great.
06: 1114, you couldn’t push them and they would just bury home shot after shot. PLUS, they were smarter than you. 99.9% of the time, they had you dominated on strategy,although it was always pretty simple.
07: 330, it was my favorite design this year. Efficient ramps, and efficient capping abilities. Their strategy and drivers proved to be great again as they were in 05.
2000- 47 and 67 /We have looked at these designs every year before we start building.
2001- 71 Best Robot I have seen
2002- 71
2003- “Dude where’s my car” I can’t remimber much from this year.
2004- 980
2005- Bad year for me
2006- Possibly 71 at IRI
2007- 330
From what i heard and what ive seen then i would have to say that 111 in '03 is the best, but i also like the look of 71 in '01
2003 (Stack Attack) was my rookie year, the 980 robot that year, “Yoda”, had an incredible amount of engineering in it; mostly associated with the “saber” - the 13-foot long telescoping arm that would get a gasp from the crowd a few seconds into the match. Cyber Blue and Team Hammond also attacked the stack with arms, but there was something ominous about the long sweeping pole from 980 that got your attention. It was scary. Here’s blast from the past (2003 Arizona regional):
980 and 234: arm vs arm
In 2004, we had an autonomous mode that got us the 2x ball very consistently and a “software-assisted” driving sequence to get up onto the platform for hanging, but amongst the mentors, Yoda is our favorite.
Thanks for putting our robot on this list of very distinguished machines. I was most impressed by 111 in 2003 - I did a double-take on their “teaser photo” with the robot perched on the top of the ramp. Their Championship performance in Houston was truly remarkable - drivers and machine were outstanding.
I agree. That robot would go from “in the box” to GIGANTIC in the first few seconds of the match, and then just dominate the rest of the round.
Hmmm… perhaps we need to discriminate between the “Best” robot… and the “Greatest” robot of all time FIRST action. The Best Robot could be defined as the robot that was the most outstandingly dominant robot at the game it was designed to play, while the Greatest Robot would be the one that had the most lasting impact or influence and that inspired the most excitement and passion amongst those watching.
I can’t help but think that someone… somewhere… brought the first mecanum drive machine to a FIRST competition… or the first two (or three or four) speed gearbox… and used those techniques to achieve competitive success.
I know that one of my all time favorites was 1241’s rookie machine in 2004 that would position itself underneath the rack holding the balls, and then open up and catch 80% or so of them as they fell, deliver them to the human player and then… once the goal was filled up… cap it with the doubling ball.
In all-time FIRST action, no… not the best robot, perhaps… but as we were rookies that year too it really opened my eyes to the number of different ways that you could play the game (especially when an opponent stuffed a doubling ball into their hopper, blocking them from catching the balls). It has probably had as much of a lasting inspiration or influence on me as any other machine. (Although 33 was pretty darn good that year, too.)
Jason
P.S. As for the comment that 1114 “only lost two qualifying matches this year” earlier in the thread… one of those was when their radio suffered an inexplicable glitch leaving them dead-on-the-carpet for over half the match.
My best list, from 2001 to present–
2001: 71, 254
2002 60, 71, 469, 173, 121, 16
2003: 111, 25, 469
2004: 254, 60, 45, 469, 33
2005: 67, 254, 217, 56, 330
2006: 1114, 469, 217, 111
2007: 330, 1114, 233, 148
Normally I wouldn’t list my own team, but prior to joining 254 in 2006 they would have held the same position(s) on my list as they do now.
I can’t believe there hasn’t been a single vote for 1114 in 2004. I know it wasn’t the most dominant robot of the year, but it definately has my vote for the biggest “cool factor”.
ps
I also have to agree with cheifdelphi 2000, and 71 in 2001.
i was going to put them up there on my “if it wasnt for these teams” post but i only wanted to put up a couple teams per year. i could list all of the ones i think were like that but it would be a very long list.
That robot was definitely awesome, but i dont think it can take “best robot ever”…
Ive got to give it to Beatty of '02…
I choose not to give it to Beatty of '01 because Beatty of '02 competed against other robots (not saying what 71 did in 01 was not impressive).
What impressed me most about Beatty of '02 was not their robot (not that their machine was flawed, which it was nearly flawless)…but how they so perfectly heard the game and predicted winning was in the goals.
Its a very bold move to say ok, we want our robot to move 30 feet…the entire match, but we’re gonna do it so perfectly no one can stop us.
Their strategy combined with amazing engineering wins them best robot ever in my eyes…71 in '02
Not to take anything away from Beatty–I completely agree with your analysis, and they’re my second or third favorite robot ever, but it’s worth noting that 173 bailed them out on Einstein with balls, which was what ended up winning the championship.
thats why i say that 173 was the best robot that year.
i did like 47s bot that year too tho…not saying it was the best, but i liked it
25’s robot in 2006 was amazing. My team was in their alliance in new jersey and even though they were guarded the were still scoring. but in my mind the best was 56’s robot in 2005. I’ve never seen anybody dominate as many matches single handedly as they did.
Twice, I watched 121 beat 173.
Once at the UTC Regional, and once at Battlecry 3.
121’s robot was better than 173’s robot in 2002. (IMO, of course)
this is all opinion of course haha
121 always puts up a solid robot.
If we’re looking for the bots that have inspired the most people, there are a few that stand out.
Chief Delphi, with the first bot in FIRST with “omni-directional” motion with their swerve drive. The bots would be going at it, and all of a sudden 47 would start strafing. Amazing.
45’s 2-speed dog shifter. I’m not sure if the Technokats were the first to use a dog shifter or a 2-speed in FIRST, but they inspired the most. Their transmission is the ancestor to most in FIRST today (most obviously the AndyMarks). They inspired generations of FIRSTers to design new multi-speed transmissions, and improve on upon their design. Even aside of the AM Shifters, descendant drives can still be found on robots today (such as the 4-speed cluster shifter of 1126, 379’s 2-speed, and 716’s drive).
857’s kiwi-drive in 2002. The first vector-based system in FIRST, this 3-wheeled holonomic drive sent ripples through FIRST like few systems ever will. The popularity of holonomic and mecanum systems today can directly be linked to this bot.
Guess what, I’m gonna mention 45 again! Their roller claw way back in '98 demonstrated a quick and efficient way of manipulating single balls (and tubes, as proven in '07).
If we’re going to count single events, I couldn’t agree more. I (and many others) doubted Team Hammond going into IRI 2006. They proved that doubting 71 is ALWAYS a mistake. During the elimination matches, nobody put on a more dominating performance at an event packed with dominant teams. Some of the teams most frequently mentioned in this thread for the best robots in 2006 (25, 1114, and 217) lost to 71 during the eliminations (not to mention 494, 233, and 33).
I still go back to the Beatty robot from 1997. By far, more dominant than any other robot since…including the dominating 2001 Beatty robot.
Go back and look at the video (if you can find it)…
Beatty, stops at human player, turns around, caps, game over in 6 seconds. We timed it.
Name me a robot in the past 16 years that could win a match in 6 seconds? I think you’d be hard pressed to find one.
Could you describe what they did and what their strategy was?
In 1997, the main objective of the game was to take innertubes and hang them on a goal much similar to the one we had this year. The difference was you could get big points for scoring on the apex of the goal. Many teams would actually have a cap which you could load up with tubes and place on the apex. What Beatty did, was unfold, stop at the human player so the human player could place his whole stack on the cap. They then would turn around and cap the apex of the goal. Each tube on the cap would double the score. From there, they would score on the lower rungs to offset any teams who capped over the cap they had on the goal.
They were nearly unstoppable, though Delphi did get to them in one round.