Did anyone share Minibots?

FIRST General Forum
#54

In Pittsburgh, Team 1507 loaned us their backup to their extremely quick minibot design. After fabricating an adapter for our deployment, we successfully deployed their minibot in our final qualifying match, earning 1507 the Coopertition Award.

Even though 1507 chose us for the elims, inconsistency in using our swing arm deployment with their smaller minibot led us to return to using our larger, slower, yet far more reliably-deployed minibot design in the elims. This reliability came in handy in more than one match and helped the alliance make it to the finals. We are now working to improve our swing arm to work with minibots such as this.

By the way...Smoky Mountain Regional teams...two 1/2" diameter vertical aluminum pegs with a 4" center to center spacing...just sayin....:)

Fun fact - 1503 almost won the Pittsburgh Coopertition Award, because the volunteer mistakenly wrote their number down when our drive team checked in - another volunteer saw this and caught it in time! I’m sure that would have been quite an amusing sequence of events during the awards ceremony…imagines “Yakety Sax” playing.

#55

At WPI we (FRC 2168) had some major problems with our deployment device through qualifications rounds, despite having a fast minibot.

We were selected into an alliance and shared our minibot with our alliance partners, 236 Techno Ticks, who took ours and deployed it in our first elimination match, resulting in not only the first succesful field test of our minibot but also securing us the match win.

We ended up recieving the Coopertition ™ award because of this. Thanks 236!

#56

That would have been hilarious. We would have been just as confused as everyone else.

-Nick

#57

does your shared minibot have to score to win co-op award?

#58

Yes and in qualifications, not in eliminations.

#59

Minibots that score in the elims can win the award.

#60

I got called on that earlier. They have to score in quals.

“The total number of Coopertition points earned by a TEAM throughout the qualification matches will be their Coopertition score.”

#61

Here is the list of Coopertition awards I have compiled so far based on the Awards pages on FIRST’s web site…

COOPERTITION AWARDS AFTER WEEK 3
15 YES
12 NO

Coopertition Awards
WEEK1
Alamo - NO
NJ - YES
BAE - YES
FINGER LAKES - YES
Kettering District - ??
Traverse District - YES

WEEK2
SDC - NO
FL - NO
WPI - NO
LAKE SUPERIOR - YES
KC - NO
PITTSBURGH - YES
Wisconsin - NO
New York - NO
Waterford District - NO

WEEK3
NO Arizona Regional
YES Sacramento Regional
NO Peachtree Regional
YES Boilermaker Regional
YES Oklahoma Regional
YES Lone Star Regional
NO Seattle Olympic Regional
YES Seattle Cascase Regional
YES West Michigan District
YES Detroit District
NO Bayou Regional
YES St. Louis Regional
YES Chesapeake Regional

#62

At the Peachtree Regional team 122 tried to share one of their 2 extra minibots with us but we did not have a deployment platform to work with it. They ended up sharing it with another team that made it to the finals though. So yes…

#63

We used 217’s minibot at Detroit with mixed success. We got one successful deploy in qualifying and one more in eliminations. We got approximately 400 successful deployments on the practice field trying to duplicate the issues we were having during matches.

#64

Team 1918 “the NC Gears” shared a design with many teams including ours (Team 74 C.H.A.O.S.):D. Our team was very grateful for that!

#65

We were happy to pass the design along to your team, among others. It was cool to walk around the pits and see our minibot design in at least 7 different pits. 141 even made it lighter and flashier!

#66

FIRST has updated their Awards page for Peachtree and put a trophy in the mail to Team 122.

Also, we only made semifinals and never actually deployed the minibot in elims. We only got it up once, in our second to last qual match.

#67

Our team (Team Mean Machine 2471) shared minibots at the Seattle:Cascade regional with 2 other teams that proved extrememly successful. Our alliance parter, team 1510 the Wildcats, used one of ours for both the qualification matches and finals. In building our minibot(s) we kept the design very generic so each of the 4 bots can be deployed numerous ways. Since we brought several loaner minibots it was easy to loan them out. Team 1510 ended up taking a minibot home to work with and will be bringing it back to the Portland, OR regional this next weekend (: We all look forward to seeing how other teams approach the minibot aspect of competition!

#68

We have been in contact with Kevin, the FIRSTWA chairman, to hopefully correct any mistake in awarding team 3221 the cooperatition award, when it really should have been awarded to team 2471.

We were honored to be able to utilize the elegant and simple minibot design of team 2471, and were thrilled that they prevailed thoughout the eliminations to win the Seattle Cascade regional. Great job.

Mentor, team 3221

#69

Thanks for helping to see that 2471 will get the coopertition award the earned and deserved!

Kevin has it under control and has informed 2471 of the fact that once all the paper work has been done it runs up the national chain of command and back down they will be receiving the coopertition award for Cascade.

Currently at the Oregon regional 5 of the top 10 teams are carrying either a 2471 or 2046 minibot.

#70

At Long Beach, 696 has had 3 team members dedicated to installing a minibot on alliance partners’ robots if they don’t have a working one.

2339 has successfully deployed it on numerous occasions. 2576 attempted in two matches, but was not successful. 2272 had it all ready to go and tested working, but had a control system issue which left them motionless on the field.

It was a really great experience to work with team 2576 from Chile. Even though they didn’t speak perfect English, and we didn’t speak much Spanish, we really worked together well to try to get it installed and working. They gave it a great effort. I really like the sharing and helping aspect of this year’s competition.

I believe the 696 minibot has appeared in 9 matches of other teams so far. Anyone else sharing at Long Beach?

Chances are it’ll appear in at least one more tomorrow.

#71

Nice! You guys did great today. We had lots of problems, no bueno… But watch, I’ll be driving the arm tomorrow, and I will get autonomous working by “dead reckoning” style. I got high hopes for tomorrow.

#72

We gave a completed minibot and deployment design to First Team 3175 (University Liggett HS, GP) along with opening our shop to them for fabrication of their entire robot. They were able to successfully deploy 4 times. Their main robot was totally designed and fabricated by their students (BIG KUDOS), so giving them our minibot, designed and built by one of our freshwomen, was in line with their team objectives.

I did not see anyone at our first event at Grand Valley State University (Western Michigan event) sharing minibots at the tournament, but I did hear successful designs were being given out by a couple of teams. I was busy queuing teams and did not get the pit scuttlebutt. I heard a team brought extras minibots and deployers for alliance members, I just don’t recall seeing any on the floor. (hard to get the same attachment points, etc.)

#73

At Buckeye today, at least two teams have sucessully shared 1 sec range minibots… 3201, a team we have been close to since before it was a team, has been using one of our minibots at Buckeye very successfully - even when they were against us! 3138, another team very close to us, gave one of their minibots to 1629, which has been very successful with it! The result? Both teams using the loaned minibots are currently in the top 12! Very cool stuff!