Posted by Dante.
Student on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST
I have one question:
How much drive time did the drivers get before the regionals started?
We had a lot of drive time this year. Almost a whole week.
Dante`
Posted by Patrick Seeney.
Student on team #469, Las Guerrillas, from Oakland Robotics and Lawrence Technological University and Magna Seating Systems, Nachi and Kuka Robotics.
Posted on 6/13/2000 9:03 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
Well our first match at regionals was the first time we got to drive our robot, two matches after that, me and the guy operating the arm switched places to see how it went, from then on it was like a butter…
It took us about 4 matches to get in tune with our robot.
Pat
Posted by Becky Sherman.
Student on team #27, Team Rush, from OSMTech Academy and DaimlerChrysler.
Posted on 6/13/2000 9:20 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
We got maybe 10 minutes of practice in before the ship deadline! Made for an exciting practice round at Ypsi 
: I have one question:
: How much drive time did the drivers get before the regionals started?
: We had a lot of drive time this year. Almost a whole week.
: Dante`
Posted by Steve Prairie.
Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.
Posted on 6/14/2000 9:15 AM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
We built a whole second practice bot, we got a good 4 weeks to practice in the facility we built.
Posted by Steve Prairie.
Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.
Posted on 6/16/2000 4:00 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Question! posted by Steve Prairie on 6/14/2000 9:15 AM MST:
Does anyone build a complete second robot for practice reason so that they could practice even AFTER they shipped the official robot? We decided to, and got a good FOUR WEEKS to practice (very helpful), we even made alot of programming changes, and played out every strategy imaginable on our own practice facility. Then we completely dismantled it and showed up well prepared at the UTC Regional… It was worth the effort.
Posted by Dante.
Student on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 6/17/2000 2:40 PM MST
In Reply to: Practoce Robot??? posted by Steve Prairie on 6/16/2000 4:00 PM MST:
We don’t build new robots to drive. We recycle the old ones like, CD3 and CD4. We test new programs on the robots to see which program they like on the robot.
Posted by Steve Prairie.
Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.
Posted on 6/16/2000 4:01 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Question! posted by Steve Prairie on 6/14/2000 9:15 AM MST:
Does anyone build a complete second robot for practice reason so that they could practice even AFTER they shipped the official robot? We decided to, and got a good FOUR WEEKS to practice (very helpful), we even made alot of programming changes, and played out every strategy imaginable on our own practice facility. Then we completely dismantled it and showed up well prepared at the UTC Regional… It was worth the effort.
Posted by kyle gilbert.
Student on team #45, Technokats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 6/16/2000 4:59 PM MST
In Reply to: Practice Robot??? posted by Steve Prairie on 6/16/2000 4:01 PM MST:
Practice Robot:
I was not on the technokats last year (1999)but i do know they had a complete 2nd robot for practicing and stuff. This year we built a drive base for the operators (minus the ‘snake-like’ arm) and add weight to simulate the arm being there. It gave the operators something good to practice with but i’m not sure how much time they were able to use it.
Posted by Erin. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.
Posted on 6/17/2000 9:11 AM MST
In Reply to: Practice Robot??? posted by Steve Prairie on 6/16/2000 4:01 PM MST:
i believe the technokats did last year… i know that scared me and a few other people when we saw it at rumble last year…
-Erin
Posted by Brian .
Student on team #56, Robbe Xtreme, from Bound Brook High School and Ethicon Inc…
Posted on 6/17/2000 9:39 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Practice Robot??? posted by Erin on 6/17/2000 9:11 AM MST:
Yeah they successfully scared me, but we still did beat them ina qualifying match with our one and only robot hehe…
Posted by Janna.
Student on team #349, The RoBahamas, from International Academy and Ford Motor Company.
Posted on 6/14/2000 11:40 AM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
Hey,
Our drivers had about the same amount of time as you…a week or so, maybe a little more for the guy who drove the base. But, improvements were still being made on everything during that week and at Ypsi…and Chicago…and Florida.
Janna
Posted by Kirsten.
Student on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells.
Posted on 6/14/2000 12:12 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
: How much drive time did the drivers get before the regionals started?
Approximately… none. =) In fact, our drive team wasn’t even selected until after the first few matches at regionals! The ‘practice time’ we had hoped to have the day before shipping turned into time for last second changes- big surprise there, huh? =)
Once we shipped we had over a month to wait for regionals so we used the '98 Bobcat for practice, so that anyone who wanted to try out for driver could practice. It was a lot different from this year’s Bobcat though, so once we got to regionals we had to get used to the new machine… fast!
Looking forward to Battlecry, hope to see you all there!
-Kirsten
Posted by nuts4first.
Engineer on team #340, GRR - Greater Rochester Robotics, from Churchville-Chili and Nortel Networks.
Posted on 6/14/2000 2:36 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
I would venture to guess that our team drove the robot for a combined time of about 10 hours from the time it was all put together on Saturday night, until it left our hands on Tuesday.
Posted by David Kelly.
Student on team #234, Cyber Blue, from Perry Meridian H. S. and NASA Langley/ Rolls-Royce.
Posted on 6/14/2000 2:39 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
We had about a total of 1 Hour. Some of us had to skip class on shipping day to finish our robot
David Kelly
Team 234
Posted by Dave. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #308, Robo Stars, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW.
Posted on 6/14/2000 2:53 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
We had our mid-winter break the week before shipping, so we met everyday that week for at least 3 hours in the morning and a couple more in the evening… So we had quite a bit.
Dave Hurt
: I have one question:
: How much drive time did the drivers get before the regionals started?
: We had a lot of drive time this year. Almost a whole week.
: Dante`
Posted by Erin. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.
Posted on 6/14/2000 4:46 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
You can check with my team, but with this years robot I think we had a week or longer. Maybe a week and a day.
But before that, they practiced with the old robots. We had the same turret op as last year. Not the same controllers, but all of our past robots have the same basic idea. I think our large amount of practice time is a good thing.
Practice makes perfect.
-Erin
Posted by Ryan Shanley. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #191, The X-Cats, from Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School and Xerox.
Posted on 6/14/2000 6:25 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
: How much drive time did the drivers get before the regionals started?
My partner and I had about 2 hours to practice with the finished robot before it was packed and shipped to Rutgers, where we almost helped the Chief win. I did drive last year in three competitions, though, so I had some experience.
ryan
Posted by Lora Knepper.
Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.
Posted on 6/14/2000 8:50 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
Usually we get about a week with the whole machine, and another week with just the drive train while the arm/etc. is being built.
THIS year was different though…I would say about an hour total. That’s inbetween breaking and fixing things while making those last minute design changes in parts. But, it comes with the job to compensate when any problem arises =)
i think my co-driver did absolutely awesome on the time she had to practice, and being a rookie too!
Kudos to all the drivers out there, no matter how much practice you got. It’s a job that requires a certain mindset, and it’s most definately not all ‘glory.’ Thanks for making my job at driving my bot that much more interesting. =) See you all at BattleCry, Rumble, or next year!
Lora
Posted by colleen. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Coach on team #246, a FIRST-aholic, from John D. O’Byrant High School/Boston Latin Academy and NSTAR/Boston University/UTC/Raytheon/MassPEP.
Posted on 6/14/2000 10:02 PM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
how bout this… wires never touched the robot until about 9-10 hours before shipping…
our kids voted on who they wanted as driver/operator/HP… absolutely zero practice time…
Posted by Anton Abaya.
Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NASA, Mathsoft, Solidworks.
Posted on 6/15/2000 12:22 AM MST
In Reply to: Question! posted by Dante on 6/13/2000 8:37 PM MST:
yep. that practice time would have meant a lot. we’re not gonna make the same mistake next time.