So for those of you who weren’t at the Great Lakes Regional’s first day today (Thursday), it started and it’s looking pretty good! Though at the beginning of the day, many of the teams were just sending human players and there were some “technical glitches,” by the end of the day, the regional was heating up.
Near the end, there were multiple hanging teams, as well as a few very good multiplier ball grabbers. Near the end, there was some sweet matches and we had some really great looking teams. If anyone who was there wants to single out any teams, please feel free. A couple of my favorites were:
1241 (pretty sure thats the right number): Looks absolutely awesome! With their laundry basket-like ball grabber, great ball slide and their big ball grabber, this bot is one that is making everyone take notice
406: Gotta give credit to a team that built such an awesome robot in less than 3 weeks! Plus they’re our sister team, but their hang in their last match was awesome, and they showed that they’re ready to be a true competitor during tomarrow’s matches!
How’s Wildstang’s (111) robot operating. After watching their incredible teaser video, I’m incredibly curious as to how they’re doing in actual competition.
Wildstang did really great! My favorite part of their robot was at the end of their (I believe) last match, when they went and hung. Seriously, when they hang, they don’t lift their robot, but rather attatch to the bar and lift their wheels off the platform. It’s something you really hafta see in person.
That is a great idea! It eliminates the need for a tremendous amount of lifting power and it allows for a lighter arm design. We also attach first and then lift from the bottom with a pneumatic piston, but the entire robot, frame and wheels, comes off the ground. While this still requires lots of force, it allows the arm to be very light, since it only has to support tension. Plus, there is no winch or chain system to worry about. I’d like to see Wildstang in action…I would have never thought to lift just the wheels!
Edit: Now that I think about it…you still need a considerable amount of force because the wheels have to support the rest of the robot anyway. Still an amazing design though. I’ve gotta see it.
Not quite that much. We managed to implement a similar system this year because it is much easier then extra motors, etc, and it gets you up the ramp too.
Ya! How about 45?! I tried talking to DJ last night on his mobile AIM account, but he wasn’t too talkative. He said things are going well, and they did a lot of autonomous mode tweaking on practice day (I guess).
If someone could check em out for me (and the rest of CD) I would greatly appreciate it.
one major plus for this weekend so far…there have been a lot less penalty flags (that i have seen) than were described at other regionals. Things seem to be headed up.
Yeah, I know. I was getting bored there for a while cuz I didn’t throw any flags for like 7 or 8 matches in a row.
Keep up the good work teams! I’ve seen a lot of great looking robots out there. Tomorrow’s Elims are going to be great!
I think one of the truely great things I’ve seen today is one second year team. After the practice rounds yesterday, and a few rounds today, I had written them out of the Elim run. But somehow, they managed to pull off a few good rounds at the end, and now I think they’re one of the better 2X Ball handlers out there.
Moral of the story: Don’t count your Chickens before they’re hatched.
well,i know wildstangs (111) are 1, and dana’s team (279) is 3rd. we were third till our last round today, so know we’re 10 (1023) thts all i know really!
Team 1241 is in second place. They catch the balls as they fall and have done so every time. Great human player. I also know that 292 is in 7th and 111 is in 1st. I don’t remember the rest of the seedings.
Other random observations:
-Truck Town Thunder (68) hasn’t been so hot, but have had a few unlucky breaks. Good machine, though.
-HOT (67) has a good arm…or good drivers, I’m not sure.
-Technokats (45) spent a lot of time in low gear, when the drivers get used to the machine, they’ll be very good. Their ball catching net is off because nobody has been able to trigger the ball drop autonomously. I saw them hang once…or at least they were off the ground, I didn’t get the official ruling about the vertical bar removal thing.
-Autonomous has been pretty much nonexistent, the 10 pt. balls have only been triggered a few times (less than 5)
-Wildstang (111) has swerve in the front, omniwheels in the back. They have very good big ball handling, but I did not see them hang. They were blocked from going up the step rather easily.
-Rush (27) and the Martians (494) have dropped the big ball a lot. Rush is very good at hanging.
-Las Gueriallas (469) pick up balls and have a big arm on the back. Their numbers are written with electrical tape
-LOTS OF ARMS! There were only about 5-10 robots that could pick up balls, but with varrying success.
I was surprised, I thought the game would be played more aggressively than it was in Virginia, knowing teams like Truck Town and the Martians were there, but it is very much the same. There were a lot of low scoring matches. I think the high score is 130.
If anyone has any specific questions, I’ll see what I can do to answer them. These observations are just what I can think of right now.
-Team 1214’s Human player is ON FIRE (near 95% accurate). Must be because he gets a lot of practice from all of the balls they get fed.
-I thought Team 45 was pulling their punches!
Technokats weren’t hung, because they were leaning against the side of the platform. You need to be totally higher than the platform (and not touching it) to score.
-The vertical bar rule is if you are leaning on the vertical bar as so if the v-bar wasn’t there, you would swing down to touch the platform, then you don’t get the points.
-Ford’s TNT was the only robot I saw hit the 10 pt ball semi-consistantly
-No goaltending penalties yet - that’s surprising. LOTS OF False Start (crossing 3’ line during auto) and encroachment (robot enters ball corral) penalties though. Penalties have been deciding factors in around 10 or more matches. Also, only ONE replay match so far (it was a ball-dump malfunction)
Well, for my first FIRST experience it was pretty cool. I’m kinda disappointed that our programmers finished the motor code for the arm on our robot(team 1010). I tell you, all the mentors do is argue argue argue, and do things their own way. I told off one of them, but he didnt care like usual. Anywayz, for those that don’t remember 1010, lemme try and put a picture in your head. We where the ones that had the big ball sucker in front, with the blackhawks white board on the top…or the one that could make it to the ball, but didnt have anything to knock it off with(again, finished that at the end). But aside from that their where some great teams there. My favorite has to be hot, just becuase they tore the field apart, including those in it(1241).
well for those of you attending missassaga(however you spell it) see ya there.
