QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!

Posted by Andy Grady.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Other on team in limbo from in limbo sponsored by in limbo.

Posted on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST

Hi all, im gonna try to get a little creative with this one.

Question 8/13/00: If you could have used any other teams robot this year, which one would you like to have used the most?

Well I got a tie for that one, first would be Big Jimmy the Wedgebot (or Spam). I would have a field day with that thing, it would just be so much fun to drive. Plus it fits well with my agressive defensive attitude =) The second one would be the cherry picker from team 25. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love those little claw machines where you gotta try to pick out the stuffed animal. So as you might be able to tell, the resemblance between one of those machines and the Bristol Meyers Cherry Picker is really non existant. Man i wish i was a driver for them this year!!!
Cya later,
Andy Grady

Posted by colleen.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Coach on team #246, Blue Light Special, from John D. O’Byrant High School/Boston Latin Academy and NSTAR/Boston University/UTC/Raytheon/MassPEP.

Posted on 8/13/2000 12:50 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Ahhh… Andy, my stuffed animal winning man :wink:

I’m not quite sure of the question… so i’ll answer it in the way i like best…

if i could choose any 2000 'bot to drive around the field… i would give ANYTHING to get my hands on the wheel to the Delphi 'bot :-)… in 4 years of driving, i could do a lot… but heck- i could never drive sideways!!! that machine is a robot driver’s dream (or worst nightmare :wink:

if you’re asking if we could use another robot other than our own to play, i don’t think it would be in fairness to my team to say i would want any other… we had tons of flaws, things gone wrong, and things could’ve ‘done better’… but heart and soul, sweat and tears, and sleepless nights that was our 'bot and i love the little bugger!!

and hey… our little Blue Light held it’s own against the side-flying #47 in Jersey… so you can’t go wrong with those 2 choices :slight_smile:

Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/13/2000 6:03 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

I believe that if I could I would have used OSMTech or HUSKIE BRIGADE’s robots. I had hand-on experience (sometimes too much) with both however they were both WONDERFUL machines that were extremely fun to play with (on and off the field). I would like to apologize to OSMTech however for the loss of their robot’s program when we were in Arkansas… I had so looked forward to seeing your robot speed past the others in the finals!

Here’s to the Huskies and OSMTech, two great Oakland County teams with awesome 3 to 4 ball capacity robots.

-Erin

Posted by Andrew Rudolph.

Student on team NASA KSC/Michael Krop Senior High School from Michael Krop Senior High School sponsored by NASA Kennedy Space Centre.

Posted on 8/13/2000 6:17 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

SPAM and Demolition squad are the two i would love to drive…speed or some torque too…what a decision…

Posted by Linda Brown.

Student on team #131, C.H.A.O.S, from Manchester Central High School and Osram Sylvania & Fleet Bank.

Posted on 8/13/2000 9:23 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Well Andy, that’s a real tough choice. With what I saw at the NE Regional and the Nationals, there are many to choose from.
One I’d love to get my hands on is team 95’s Gracehopper. That thing flies. As fast as we were this year, they were just a little bit faster. For a small bot, it certainly caught my attention.
Another I wouldn’t mind driving is Rage’s robot. It was capable of doing just about everything. Though appearing top-heavy, it managed to stay upright most of the time, and when it did fall over, it righted itself. I was very impressed by this robot at NE, and I’m still impressed as the season is close to an end.
I’m out.
Linda

Posted by Brian .

Student on team #56, Robbe Xtreme, from Bound Brook High School and Ethicon Inc…

Posted on 8/13/2000 10:02 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Hey all,

While i was watching past competition videos i realized i would like to drive team 233 their whole elevator swung could right it self from most any position held six balls AWD they impressed me…

Thats all for now

Brian Team 56

Posted by Andrew Keisic.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Student on team #217, Team Macomb Royal Fusion, from Florida Institute of Technology and Ford Motor Company.

Posted on 8/13/2000 10:18 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Definately Chief Delphi’s!!! That machine was exactly that, a machine. It was the most impressive robot on the field, with thae ability to move sideways, steal balls, and clam open!! Not to mention, from what I understand, they never even had to use their robots ability to lift themselves up on the bar!!! I want to disassemble that robot, and find out how it worked (another meeting Joe?). Chief Delphi’s robot was amazing!!!

Andrew

Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/14/2000 8:33 AM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

This post was a great example of a theory that I have:

You generally like, know and want to pick the robots that you know from being at competition with them. Even I did it. When I think of awesome robots, the only teams that come to mind are WildStang, Technokats, Beatty, OSMTech, Bomb Squad, Truck Town, HOTBOT, Huskie Brigade, VistaFEDS, Chief Delphi, the Killer Bees (so on and so forth)…
There are probably great teams in other areas too that I don’t have a clue about. I think maybe it is time to include more teams in the finals or have harder and tougher marketing techniques. What do you think? Maybe it would broaden all of our horizons. I would like to think that the list of great teams is much longer, however, I am incapable of knowing when I am always surrounded by the same teams. What do you guys think we would do about this?

-Erin

Posted by colleen.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Coach on team #246, Blue Light Special, from John D. O’Byrant High School/Boston Latin Academy and NSTAR/Boston University/UTC/Raytheon/MassPEP.

Posted on 8/14/2000 8:43 AM MST

In Reply to: Please read AND RESPOND!! posted by Erin on 8/14/2000 8:33 AM MST:

i think that if you make the effort to know them, you will know the good teams… no matter where they are from…

i’ve always been on a New England, gone to the New England regional… but i know the teams in the Midwest, west, south, etc… with good 'bots… 47, 45, 16, 111, etc… when we were #2 seed at the Nationals in '99… our list of choices was quite well-rounded… and yes the team we chose was from NJ… but they had competed in a different regional than us…

i DON’T think teams need to ‘market’ more (look at my response to last weeks question of the week) i think teams just need to trust that each other knows what they are doing and that if they are through… they won’t just notice teams from their ‘region’…

fact of the matter is… you should pick the team that best matches your robot no matter who they are, who their sponsor is, or where they are from…

i think the system’s fine… no more marketing is needed… and it’s just up to teams to notice who they choose… and if they are biased to their own region… then oh well…

my thoughts…

Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/14/2000 5:12 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Please read AND RESPOND!! posted by colleen on 8/14/2000 8:43 AM MST:

In response, I wasn’t saying that I am biased to my own region. No one on y team is, and I am not saying that any teams are. I hope that no teams are. However, when you come from a team of 15 where everyone has too many jobs to handle, what are you supposed to do? When ost of our kids are only involved on the tema one year, it is hard to know all of the other teams (you have been involved over 4 now, that gave you a long time to look around). As another point, not everyone can focus on the other teams. I wasn’t looking for ore definition of the problem, but rather, a solution. Please help any of you who can. The only way I see this being solved right now is not having alliances next year. But then that would be making it too easy now wouldn’t it?

-Erin

Posted by Andy Grady.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Other on team in limbo from in limbo sponsored by in limbo.

Posted on 8/14/2000 7:13 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Please read AND RESPOND!! posted by Erin on 8/14/2000 5:12 PM MST:

Personally I don’t think eliminating alliances is going to help the fact that teams are getting overlooked. And to be truthful, many teams are gonna be overlooked next year and the years after that. I have come to one conclusion, the best way to know about good teams is to simply watch matches. Sure it is easy to watch matches with teams like Wildstang and Delphi because they are heavily talked about and very recognizable. However to really find the hidden gems in these competitions, you need to watch them begining to end, noting every fairly good robot you see. I just wish my team made it to the top 16 at nationals because there are many of these underground teams just waiting to pop out, who I would have loved to pick. Just look at team 293, anyone who really followed these guys knows that they know how to win, however they were overlooked because more ‘flashy’ and bigger named robots appealed to the top 16 teams.
One other thing I noticed in the past couple of years are the formation of groups. When I say groups I mean groups of teams sticking together throughout competition. If you notice, many times, UTC teams pick other UTC teams, Nasa teams pick other NASA teams, Midwest Teams pick other Midwest teams, and New England Teams pick other New England Teams. Seems to me the best way to get noticed in this competition, is to make friends with the teams around you and so forth. Thats just a theory of course,
Cya,
Andy Grady

Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 8/15/2000 1:00 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Please read AND RESPOND!! posted by Erin on 8/14/2000 5:12 PM MST:

: In response, I wasn’t saying that I am biased to my own region. No one on y team is, and I am not saying that any teams are. I hope that no teams are.

Looking at the top 8 alliances in florida(yes, i know there was 16, but i only had time to look at the top 8), very few picked partners from their own area…

Posted by Justin Ridley.

Engineer on team #221, MI Roboworks, from Michigan Technological University.

Posted on 8/14/2000 4:06 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

I said it all through competition, and I’ll say it now. I’d love to get my hands on the 3D Services bot. Juggy gave their drivers two great advantages. . . superiour strength and versitility. That robot really could play unbelievable deffence in almost any situation. Yet it could also provide it’s share of offence. Best robot in this years competition and I’d love to use it in the heat of battle.

Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/14/2000 5:17 PM MST

In Reply to: Easy. . . posted by Justin Ridley on 8/14/2000 4:06 PM MST:

Justin-

Honored as always by your opinion. I have to convince more to share it. But I seriously think that with our coaching us and 221 could’ve taken them down at the BOMB :slight_smile: well, maybe not but, i can dream…

-erin

Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team in limbo from in limbo sponsored by in limbo.

Posted on 8/14/2000 5:45 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

: Question 8/13/00: If you could have used any other teams robot this year, which one would you like to have used the most?

Hmm…toughie. I have a soft spot for the Bobcat (177) – but then, they feel like my team, so I guess that doesn’t count completely…

So I have to say that I loved the little bot by team 483 - BORG from California. Though I drove a monkey bot this year, I just loved their version of it and I don’t think many people realized what a cool bot they made.

Lora

Posted by Splash.

Student on team #53, Team Inferno, from Eleanor Roosevelt High School and NASA GSFC.

Posted on 8/15/2000 9:20 AM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Team 121’s robot was incredible. And as an added bonus, the shark paintings on the basket were great. It was fast, went under the bar, held 8 balls, climbed the bar. Ovbiously capable of being an offensive robot, someone in their pit told me they were were running at 150% speed because they added the fisher-price motors to their gear boxes. That one was of those hidden gems Andy was talking about.

Hotbot, Wildstang, and Chief Delphi’s all looked like fun as well.

Posted by Steve Prairie.

Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.

Posted on 8/15/2000 11:28 AM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Hey everyone, this year i saw alot of great robots. But the one which i wish i could’ve used was 126 Gael force. They had a great loading idea, and good manuverability.

Steve Prairie
Rage 173

p.s. I wish i could see RAGE 173’s bot race Buzz 175’s bot on a 300 foot drag strip, that’d be a great race!!

Posted by Andy Baker.

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

Posted on 8/15/2000 10:25 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

I loved team 288’s unique ball extractor. They had this spatula with belts on it that would flip out the balls of their opponents’ goal. Way cool.

This team also had a neat ‘look’… all of their t-shirts and signs had the ‘RoboDawgs’ logo that looked like a Mountain Dew logo.

Their robot’s design and strategy took guts, and it made us miss the way we played the game in '99 with our TKO robot. As a few of you know, playing defense is a blast!

Andy B.

Posted by Mike.

Student on team #126, Gael Force, from Clinton High School and NYPRO.

Posted on 8/15/2000 10:37 PM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

If i had to pick which robot I would use it would be Team#131 Osram because the were fast and powerful and they could steal and in my opinion they were a very effective robot.

Posted by Tom.

Other on team #126, Gael Force, from Clinton High School and NYPRO.

Posted on 8/18/2000 6:58 AM MST

In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 8/13/2000 8:27 AM MST:

Andy,

Interesting question.  I would have to say out of all the Robots in this years competition if I had to choose....  I think that I would pick... well it is a toss up between Team #47 and Team #131.  Chief Delphi was probably one of the best engineered machines that I have ever seen come out of six weeks than ever before.  Watching it move across the field was pure enjoyment for me.  However was there ever a team that made everone react and change there strategy based on their robot just being on the carpet as CHAOS.  Watching their robot pull balls out of the goal still sends shivers down my spine.  It would be between those two teams.

Tom