Makes you wonder how much better FRC autos would be if they were given the same amount of time
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Weird thought: for some robots where you can’t identify the front of it, there should be an “F” for “Front” to indicate where the front of the robot is. That is something that teams should recognize when building their robots. A prime example is 254’s robot from 2022. From a viewer’s perspective, you cannot identify where the front of the robot is. The inspiration for the “F” came from train locomotives, where the “F” is painted on the nose end (usually). Alternatively, the “F” could be on the bumpers, but the team number cannot be positioned in a way that interferes with the “F”. So, the bumper graphics could be spaced as follows:
F _____________ _____ 8917
8917 _________ __________F
___________ 8917 ________F
F _________ 8917 _________
But it cannot be spaced like this:
____________ _______ 8917F
In words, the number has to be spaced at least four inches from the F. I was using 8917 as an example number, as that one is not used.
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Curious as to why you find it important to know which side of the robot the team considers the “front”?
We have often written in sharpie on the frame which side we considered the “front” simply so everyone had a standard orientation during the build period. From the Drive Teams perspective we tend to call it algae side and climber side this year, the robot doesn’t truly have a front as the robot moves field oriented.
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It’s more so that a bystander knows what and where the front of the robot is. That’s all that I can muster.
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With swerve drives, “Front” is “whichever way the robot is currently moving”.
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But which way is port, starboard and stern? Or same rules apply? I’d argue when current pushes a boat it is moving omnidirectionally relative to the field (world) position. To the people (sensors) on the boat (robot) their idea of what is the bow (front) doesn’t change, even as the boat spins around in place.
Where the confusion sets in is whether you are talking relative to the robot or the outside world. Most teams use swerve in terms of being outside of the boat (field relative). In that case @EricH and others are 100% correct.
If you are not field relative swerve (our team last season) it very much does matter what way is front on the robot. It matters for autonomous, and for general field driving. We went without an IMU or reading AprilTags so that’s about all you can do. In that case I agree @treiselof8531 that some indication would be great. We did a directional arrow on our structure at our first event to help the drive team remember which way to face the robot for auton.
I don’t know about on the bumpers for aesthetics though. It’s more for the drivers and people operating the robot to know. They should not be driving it towards (close) to people anyways. The bystander doesn’t need to know where the robot is going next, the robot shouldn’t be near them to begin with if it’s operational.
These are large dangerous machines, knowing forwards is one way doesn’t protect your safety when the robot can go any direction at anytime. If I stand behind it and the driver goes backwards instead of forwards I’m still in danger.
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Discourse surrounding teams being “mentor-built” vs “student-built” is just generally stupid. It’s reductive to both students AND mentors in different ways and ultimately serves more often as a cop-out (i.e., a reason/excuse for why one team is better than another) as opposed to high level analysis.
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So because we lost the 
can we have a truly hot take anymore?
Edit:
To clarify. We know exactly where the emoji belongs. It has been removed from our tool belt and despite looking high and low where it should be, we have to borrow one from a different tool set. It doesn’t match the rest of the tools on the reactions tool belt and it looks hokey.
Put tools (and emojis) back in their proper homes
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I think we have to now respond to every new take with a thumbs down emoji and have the community react to that👍
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pre-covid games were more interesting, you had things like logo motion with its mini bot climb, or recycle rush, while not great was still more creative with the stacking system, then theres strongholds terrain, and and rapid react had the monkey bars. Reefscape was just an average placing game.
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2008 is and will always be my favorite FRC game, and they should run something with an oversized gamepiece and/or a racing theme again.
Imagine Overdrive with modern robots. It’d rule.
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kind of like the REV dino stickers but a different animal and a plushie. Come to think of it, maybe AM should start dressing up the goat plushes based on the season…
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YES! Id finally have an excuse to constantly talk about F1 in the shop
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They did do that!
Well, at least for winter.
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