With seeing a lot of threads about how to increase the functionality of your robot slightly, it has been a question for both my drive team and I this season on how we can increase our cycles slightly. A mild decrease in the time of each cycle can ultimately lead to another 1-2 extra cycles per match, which as we all know, can completely change the outcome of an entire event.
That being said, how does your team make tiny adjustments to driving to decrease cycle time, and increase points in the long-run?
Yeah, currently we’ve been drilling a lot of different routes in driver practice, but have been focusing on under-stage cycles, which seem to be our fastest, and will also avoid the most traffic.
Answer #2: automate the functions that are taking the most time during a cycle. If intaking the note is taking the most time, look for ways to use vision system to help align the note with the intake. If shooting is taking the most time, look for ways to automate the alignment of your shooter as you are approaching you shooting position. In 2022, for example, our shooter was on a turret and the vision system kept the turret pointed at the goal at all times while we were driving. That way, as soon as we had the balls in the robot, we could stop and shoot right away and did not need to spend any time aligning the robot for the shot.
Answer #3: Driver practice (see answer 1 for more details)!
Reduce the amount you spin while you are driving across the field.
Any power from your swerves used to make the drive base rotate is not being used to accelerate the robot in translation.
(also physics: K_total = K_translation + K_rotation = mv ² + Iω ²)
Have flywheel warmed up so you dont have to spend much time revving up to shoot.
Intaking from ground at source is typically faster then having human player drop it in (called babybird or babybirding).
Driver for the OPs team here, one of the other questions we are(or at least I am) wondering is what people do to try and simulate actual matches. Currently we are timing ourselves and only running practice in 2:15 intervals to get measurable results but that doesn’t really mean that we will be competition ready. Hitting consistent sub 9-10 sec cycles on an open field is great but it doesn’t fully translate to an actual comp.
If you have another functioning robot then having someone drive defense against you can help you be prepared for a more realistic scenario. Measuring cycle time on an open field can still have value since it can allow you to see whether changes actually lead to improvements. it just isn’t too useful for figuring out how many cycles you can do in a competition.
Reduce the load on the driver. The driver should have to give minimal input to make the robot perform its functions. Automate things with code. (Always have manual backups…)
This may sound dumb but as a driver you should not be looking at if you have scored or not.
The coach or whoever is dictating cycles should be telling you your next move as you are approaching with a note. So if you miss or hit that should be the next move.
If you do not have a ground pickup whether you score or not is irrelevant since there is nothing you can do with a missed shot.
If you do have a ground pick up and are running 9 second cycles on an open field you can potentially be half way to the source by the time the note comes to rest. This missed note is now the note your coach should be telling you to get after the note you just got from the source.
Anytime the robots wheels are stationary is time that can be cut off so the amount of time from note exiting, to human registering whether it went in or not is a pretty easy one that requires 0 mechanical or programming updates to fix.
I think the big things have been covered, but to summarize :
Reduce the time it takes to drive from intake position to scoring position. This is mostly practice at this point, but you can also double check your drive gearing to make sure it’s optimized.
Be ready to shoot as soon as you get to your spot (spin the wheels up while driving).
Like @MARS_James said, time spent not moving is time wasted. This is mostly at the intake position and the scoring position - definitely dont wait to see if the note went in before driving back to the source. Also, practice intaking a lot. You can probably cut off a second or 2 by getting really good at getting in and out as fast as possible (without missing the note).
If you nail these 3 “subsections” of a cycle, you’ll probably be in good shape.
It’s crazy how much difference practice makes. Get the driver to the point where the controller is a natural extension of their hands.
I’m editing together footage of our robot driving since week 1 (we slapped an intake on an off-season robot), and even when the robot hasn’t changed, I can instantly tell when it was from because the skill difference week to week is just that big. I can see better control, better paths, less over steering, it’s just amazing. From a data perspective, I can see it in our drive practice logs; from having a high score of 11 cycles at week 3, now regularly being able to hit 15, and our current highest being 16 cycles in a match (no other robots on the field, but still).
When we don’t have another team visiting to do defense practice, and we don’t have another functioning robot, the low cost way to get a defender is to get kids to shove a carpet dolly into it’s path while cycling and make the driver dodge it.
Watch match videos and learn to play against defense. Match videos will show you the widest variety of defensive scenarios in the shortest amount of time and show you the correct (and poor) responses to them. There will be defense this year and it will be extremely effective this year if you are not prepared.
Optimize the shooting sequence to minimize shot latency. As soon as you push the shoot button, the shot should be gone asap so you can start the next cycle. Saving even fractions of a second is huge because over many cycles, it adds up while also reducing the time you need to pull off a shot under defense and decreasing general congestion around the speaker.