Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 4/30/2000 10:09 PM MST
OK, after an amazingly great competition, I need to write a few things… I’ve gotta post the results, thank some people, and give some tips to the future competition holders.
I would put all of this in one note… but it would be too long, so I’ll break it up into a few different messages.
Thanks,
Andy B.
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 4/30/2000 10:23 PM MST
In Reply to: IRI - Hoosier Havoc posted by Andy Baker on 4/30/2000 10:09 PM MST:
Here are some of the results of the IRI. This is not complete, but I will post more later.
Congratulations to the winners!
Team #1, the Juggernauts
Team #65, Huskie Brigade
team #240, Mach V
Finalists:
Team #71, Beatty-Hammond
Team #47, Chief Delphi
Team #393, Bee Bots
Semi-finalists:
Team #67, H.O.T. Team
Team #68, Truck Town Terror
Team #85, Zeeland BOB
Team #201, VisteFEDS
Team #45, TechnoKats
Team #221, MI Roboworks
I think that I’ve got the alliances correct… this is from memory, so forgive me if I’m not accurate.
Andy B.
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 4/30/2000 11:10 PM MST
In Reply to: IRI - Hoosier Havoc posted by Andy Baker on 4/30/2000 10:09 PM MST:
OK, it’s time for some thanks… this is going to be long, so bear with me.
Thanks to all of the teams who came to play… thanks for your patience as this competition went from just an Indiana thing, and then from one date to then another. Next year, this will be bigger and better, thanks to you. Kokomo was very impressed with all of your efforts and spirit.
Thanks to Tim Railey and the rest of the TechnoKats. Tim ran the show, and he couldn’t have done better… but this thing went well due to many behind the scenes efforts. This was an entire team effort, and I’m not going to name who all made this possible… too many people to thank, and I’ll do that to them face to face.
Team 292, Western HS & DiamlerChrysler PantherTech. You guys are our best friends, and you always will be. We enjoyed co-promoting the IRI on the radio, and we appreciated all of your help with field construction, setup and teardown. You help us more than you realize!
Team 93, Plexus NEW Apple Corps. These guys and gals helped tear down the field, and helped celebrate the occasion afterwards. Thanks for everything, from your strong backs to your Wisconsin bratwurst!
My fellow referees: we had quite a crew, consisting of dependable people from FOUR different teams. Thanks to Pete and Nate from Westside Boiler Invasion (461), Denny from PantherTech (292), Joel from Spartrons (377), and Kim and Bill, TechnoKat Super-Parents.
The rest of the Westside Boiler Invasion, for providing not only referees, but also two excellent judges. Thanks to Shannon and the rest of the team Sherbet!
Penn HS, team 135, and the Bee Bots from Morristown, IN (team 393) both helped tear down the field sooo quickly, that I didn’t get a chance to really say ‘thanks’ before you left! So, Thank-you!
Colleen and team 246, for even attempting to make the trip all the way from Boston. I will definitely give you more time to plan your trip next year! We all missed you, but understood completely when your trip could not be made.
Tony Norman and the other guys from Innovation First. These guys worked all Easter weekend to make sure that we were taken care of, and we greatly appreciate it!!! Your system worked great, and the competition went very smoothly, thanks to Innovation First’s field controllers and switch boxes.
Thanks to Brian and Bill Beatty from team 71 for convincing us to expand this competition past the original plan of only the 9 Indiana teams. Your wisdom is priceless!
There are more… but enough for now!
Andy B.
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 5/1/2000 12:04 AM MST
In Reply to: IRI - Hoosier Havoc posted by Andy Baker on 4/30/2000 10:09 PM MST:
This competition went much better than we expected, especially since we finalized the date only 1 month ago!
We did have some lessons learned, and I’ll try to share them with the rest of you. If you have specific questions, feel free to contact me (or Tim).
Control system: The Innovation First field controllers were great. We rented a system that included 9 field controllers (4 on each side w/ 1 spare), 2 power switch boxes (never before used), and a frequency scanner. Also, as part of the package, we purchased the cables for the system (cables are less re-usable, therefore, Innovation First wanted us to buy them).
…Price: we got a good deal, but I’ll let Innovation First quote you the price, not me.
…The field lights are not part of the system, we had to provide those (thanks, Mike Stahl!)
…The robots would not respond on the field a few times, but we think we know what the problem was. If a team was tethered right before the match, then the controller on the robot had to be reset a few times in order to re-connect via the modem. Make sure that you reset the robot controller and the operator controller to get the connection back.
We had to replay one match due to this reset problem, and it was the right thing to do.
Make sure that your set screws are tight on the goals and hanging bar. One match, in the semi-finals, team #1 was got wedged under the limbo bar after a tussle with team #68, and they were stuck. As they were trying to get free, they raised the goal a bit, and then the hanging bar came loose. No one knows whether the bar fell off due to the action by Juggy, or if the set screw on the KeeKlamp fitting was loose… so we had to rerun the match. I made sure that the fittings were tight after that match!
FIRST (Eric R.) graciously donated their scoring program to us, but we couldn’t get it working correctly. So, Jeff Burch developed his own program, using Excel with Visual Basic. It was quite impressive, but it did not figure in alliance picking tie-breakers. Our #1 & #2 seeds had the same Qualification point average, and so did #3 & #4. We finally found the rule, and I think that it is SC5. I believe that Jeff’s program is available for others to use, just ask.
Leave yourself some buffer time in the agenda. We ran our qualification matches about 40 minutes too long. Our practices started a bit late, and therefore pushed the start of qualifications 15 minutes late. We had a ‘1 minute performance demo’ that each team was going to strut their stuff for a minute before the final allicance pickings… but we had to dump it due to the fact that we were running late. Finals started only 10 minutes late, and the awards started on time, so all worked out well in the end.
Have your announcer sit closer to your DJ, ours were too far apart, and they had to rely on hand signals and two-way radio contact. They should’ve been side by side.
Get a good crew of judges. That’s how you get your bosses, your community, your local colleges and businesses involved! Give them plenty of guidance!
Make your on-field decisions by a group, and make them as quickly as possible. We made two tough decisions, and both times we decided to re-run the matches. (Thanks for teams 67 & 68 for being understanding to our decision.)
Get the best facility you can. Our competition was very sucessful due to such a great facility… it was big, and we put the pits right next to the field.
Get ready to assign the work. We had no trouble getting volunteers, but had some trouble putting them all into positions. Feel free to double up the assignments.
Just do it… as the movie says: ‘build it and they will come’!
Enough for now!
Andy B.