i went spying last night...

FIRST General Forum
#1

Posted by Anton Abaya at 2/7/2001 10:27 AM EST

Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NONE AT THE MOMENT! :(.

so i headed over to usfirst.org and clicked on every darn webpage every team had… TO LOOK for pictures that they may or may not announced they had up.

I just wanted to share this info to all you guys.

From the looks of it, there are more limbo machines this year than expected. I saw at least 6 robot pictures of robots that went under the bar.

As for bridge users, there were still a bunch. A lot of robots using the bridge also sorta have some mechanism to bring it down for themselves.

Goal balancers were just as common. A lot of robots had just a hook, some had a conformed frame to hug the shape of the goal, and some had double hooks. How successful they will be in balancing is the other question.

As for ball handlers, I saw around 4-5 who were picking up balls, small and big.

As for speed, from the looks of the bots I have seen, speed will be the same as last year with many of the bots out there.

So in a way, whether or not this information helps, i worried for a while that a lot of the bots are going to be the same. But like any other year, thank god it’s not.

One thing I was rather worried about though. If there are two bots who can do the same task, who will do it?
Like say if two bots want to balance two goals…how shall they decide?

Next thing I am worried about is what if the teams who can put balls on the goal (even if it’s already balanced on the bridge) decide to be greedy and instead of hitting their buzzer, put a ball on the goal …wasting precious time out of greediness…will this happen? or will they come to their senses that they’ll lose more points if they wait or might even knock goals or unbalance the bridge? what if…

so what good will a robot that can balance two goals ONLY be if the alliance decides on NOT balancing goals and picking up balls for the entire match? Or perhaps say a robot was made to be a bridge keeper, how effective will it be if that’s their main/only function if all the robots go under the bar anyway? how often will that happen might be another question…

ahhh…“time will tell.” (said the mighty chief).

okay, back to class…

-anton
“I learn the way a monkey learns, by watching its parents.” -queen elizabeth II

#2

Posted by Andy Baker at 2/7/2001 10:35 AM EST

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

In Reply to: i went spying last night…
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/7/2001 10:27 AM EST:

Here is a link to our website for some pictures of our drive base. There are also two video clips that show some interesting things.

http://www.technokats.org/robot.html

Also, here is a pic of the drive base:

Andy B.

#3

Posted by Jessica Boucher at 2/7/2001 1:17 PM EST

Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bots, from Watertown High School and Eastern Awning Systems & The Siemon Company.

In Reply to: Since you were looking… TechnoKart drive base pics
Posted by Andy Baker on 2/7/2001 10:35 AM EST:

I was wondering when you were going to post this ;)…I basically did the same thing Anton did, during the snow days…plus, the CT papers I have show the two teams that were in the paper over the past week, both showing part or all of their robot.

-Jessica B, #237

#4

Posted by Joe Johnson at 2/7/2001 9:41 PM EST

Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

In Reply to: Since you were looking… TechnoKart drive base pics
Posted by Andy Baker on 2/7/2001 10:35 AM EST:

Andy,

Cool Pictures and Movies. Very impressive.

Any manipulators on this robot? Hooks, arms, ball
scoops, etc.?

We will see soon enough I suppose. Looks like a great
base.

By the way, I am still looking for Erin to put up or
shut up in terms of
robots going under/over the bar. In light of the
pictures the former National Champs have put up on
their web site, I will understand if you are reluctant
to take the bet…

Yet, my offer stands, Erin:

“The 2001 National Championship Alliance will score
their highest point total in the elimination rounds in
a match in which the a robot will go under or over the
bar”

I buy Pontiac Northern/GM Powertrain pizza if it is not
true, you buy Pontiac Central/Delphi Automotove System
pizza if it is.

Erin?

Joe J.

#5

Posted by Andy Baker at 2/7/2001 10:51 PM EST

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

In Reply to: Another strong entry for the TechnoKats…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 2/7/2001 9:41 PM EST:

: Andy,

: Cool Pictures and Movies. Very impressive.

: Any manipulators on this robot? Hooks, arms, ball
: scoops, etc.?

Yes, we’ve added manipulators. We’ve got an arm too… heck we’ve always got an arm! It’s just gotta make weight.

Sometimes we’ll use it, sometimes we won’t. I’m as interested as anybody to see how it turns out.

We’ve got the base working just right. I just cannot believe that we’ve packed all of that stuff (105 lbs.) into a base that is under 12" tall. Talk about low Cg.

Andy B.

#6

Posted by Mike Soukup at 2/7/2001 10:58 PM EST

Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling and Motorola.

In Reply to: Since you were looking… TechnoKart drive base pics
Posted by Andy Baker on 2/7/2001 10:35 AM EST:

The vids aren’t playing on my computer. What codec do I need to view them? Thanks

Mike

#7

Posted by Andy Baker at 2/7/2001 11:27 PM EST

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

In Reply to: What codec did you use?
Posted by Mike Soukup on 2/7/2001 10:58 PM EST:

Mike,

I dunno… I can’t get them to play on mine either, but that’s not saying much, since my home computer lacks many operating features (it sucks and I’m cheap).

I’ll check with our web people and see.

Andy B.

#8

Posted by Joe Johnson at 2/8/2001 6:15 AM EST

Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

In Reply to: What codec did you use?
Posted by Mike Soukup on 2/7/2001 10:58 PM EST:

For reasons that I thought were due to my computer being screwed up, I couldn’t play the videos directly either. Perhaps, the problem was not on my end after all.

In any case, I when to the /Images directory of the TechnoKats web site and then downloaded the files directly to my pc (rather than going through the links on their pages). Once I had the .avi files on my hard drive, I was able to play them using Quicktime.

I hope this backdoor helps.

Joe J.

P.S. TechnoKats, you really ought to lock that back door of yours :wink: Put a sham index.html file in that directory to keep folks from poking around backstage. JJ

#9

Posted by Ken Leung at 2/8/2001 6:56 AM EST

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.

In Reply to: Download to PC and play with Quicktime
Posted by Joe Johnson on 2/8/2001 6:15 AM EST:

To the TechnoKats:

Maybe you should just rename the files from *.avi to *.mov . This way web browser will know to use QuickTime to play the movie instead of launching the media player. I did that to the movie files I downloaded, and renamed them to *.mov, and QuickTime just came right up playing the movie.

#10

Posted by Ken Leung at 2/7/2001 11:32 AM EST

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.

In Reply to: i went spying last night…
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/7/2001 10:27 AM EST:

Hey Anton,

Would you like to share with everyone else about which team's webpage have robots' pictures in it?  Afterall, if they are putting them on the website it's open out for public viewing, right?  And not everyone need to spend time "spying" like you do everynight just to get a look of other people's robot.

Do every body thinks it is ok to inform other people about pictures at some paticular team’s webpage? Or should we leave to the team to tell us about them, or should we do what Anton did and go through all the links one by one search?

I just can’t wait to see amazing design out there.

By the way, I saw Technokat’s drive base… seems like they can fit under the bar pretty easily. I am sure they have a way of putting components on that base and still be able to go under the bar.

#11

Posted by Joe Ross at 2/7/2001 12:01 PM EST

Engineer on team #330, Beach Bot, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL , J&F Machine, and Raytheon.

In Reply to: hey would you like to share where they are?
Posted by Ken Leung on 2/7/2001 11:32 AM EST:

: Would you like to share with everyone else about which team’s webpage have robots’ pictures in it? Afterall, if they are putting them on the website it’s open out for public viewing, right? And not everyone need to spend time “spying” like you do everynight just to get a look of other people’s robot.

: Do every body thinks it is ok to inform other people about pictures at some paticular team’s webpage? Or should we leave to the team to tell us about them, or should we do what Anton did and go through all the links one by one search?

My favorite site from a fear years ago was team 10’s. They had an ongoing, fequently updated list of teams with pictures posted and links to those pictures. I visited it several times a week to look for more goodies. :slight_smile:

#12

Posted by Erin at 2/7/2001 11:54 AM EST

Other on team #65, Huskie Brigade, from Pontiac Northern High School and GM Powertrain.

In Reply to: i went spying last night…
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/7/2001 10:27 AM EST:

Anton has just proved in many ways the beauty strategy brings.

I really can relate this to the “buzzer or ball” citation:

If you know your strategy well enough and have good, solid plans of action, your team will be able to precisely decide and execute whichever action would be most beneficial for your team. Everyone keeps preachine “teamwork this” and “teamwork that” but remember there are MANY MANY MATCHES before the actual finals. The first seed is never as important as the first place, this is why I see a great need to equally balance fighting for yourself and others.

Ahhh. im tired…dont want to go to english class…

-erin
“I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotomy.”

#13