Kickoff Weekend Musings 1/4+1/5
Kickoff went pretty well! Historically speaking our team hasn’t had the most success kickoff day, but we went into it with more solid goals for kickoff weekend this year.
The order we wanted to do things, which shaped our schedule, is as follows:
-figure out how game is played (watch reveal, real manual in groups)
-figure out how we want to play the game (come to “consensus” for strategy)
-figure out what we need to reach desired play style (priorities)
-start brainstorming subsystems/mechanisms that match all prior steps
After clearing up some misconceptions with the game manual, we broke into groups to discuss strategy through considering how we wanted to play, what we thought bots at a high level would play like, auto paths, and most efficient scoring patterns. After sharing with the whole group, a few things were very apparent.
-
Due to never having to pass onto the opposite side of the field to score, we probably don’t care too much about being short
-
Deep climb is a ranking point! Also there’s no dedicated endgame period so if you’re feeling confident enough you can take all the time you need to line up and ensure the climb is successful
-
The value of the processor grows quite a bit if the opposing alliance fills their own barge making it harder to throw more algae in
-
Scoring multiple game pieces in auton is going to be very hard, could be more worthwhile to release some algae
After this, we broke for team lunch.
Following team lunch, our numbers were diminished a bit as some members didn’t return. But when we got back, game pieces had arrived. We had already largely discounted shooting algae, but upon receiving the game pieces (and realizing just how large they actually were) we effectively ruled out any chance of shooting the algae. We then moved on to finalizing our ideal strategy, and agreed that having both a fast and consistent coral scoring mechanism + lineup was probably going to be the thing that really made teams good this year.
We started moving on to prioritization using the MoSCoW (musts shoulds coulds wonts) method, but we weren’t really getting anywhere so we started looking at the most efficient ways to score. This was done through a new approach to us, by setting a set number of points we wanted to contribute (we arbitrarily estimated 60 would be solidly above average) and calculating the different paths or combinations of scoring actions we could take to reach that point total. This really led us to further devaluing algae as it scored less and took longer than coral, while also not contributing to any ranking points.
A few decisions regarding the drivetrain were made as well. We knew we would be using swerve drive, but mk4i was the choice over mk4n due to price range. At the moment, we’re planning on using an L2 gearing as that’s what we have. We believe greater acceleration is most beneficial due to exactly how short the cycles are, but we also wanted to be stronger as it’s very likely to be defense bots especially at earlier competitions. Happy middle ground. With that, CAD for the chassis was started.
By the end of our meeting, it had been a long day and most members had gone home. Bored and unable to make real progress, we went outside and taped out the dimensions of the barge to figure out how hard it was for the human player to hit the “free throw” (it was very easy). During analysis, people had argued that processor is going to be on average net 4 points, but we believe this average net value to be far closer to 2 points now after understanding how easy the throw is.
We then repurposed our old amp from 2024 as a processor and tested what the absolute bare minimum processor scoring mechanism could look like by taping a piece of polycarb to a swerve base and attempting to push the algae in.
It was SO inconsistent, but it was also super scuffed.
Main takaways are that we would probably want to use a more rigid material in favor of polycarb, and shapes other than literally just a plank would be better. Also, the launch pad worked best when solidly removed from the bottom of the algae. Promising low commitment algae scorer.
We went into day 2 hoping to finalize our priorities list but due to scheduling miscommunications very few people showed up. This meeting was spent realizing we can’t make a decision about priorities, gathering materials for field elements, and discussing ideas for intakes (will share as designs get more fleshed out). The meeting ended with sharing a microsoft form for preliminary design ideas to make sure voices of those who weren’t at kickoff were heard while also better developing ideas.
Tomorrow we hope to finalize priorities for real (as our team normally meets on Mondays) and figure out what we need to prototype, with that being things we value that hasn’t been prototyped by other people yet. Due to a weird schedule this week, prototyping will likely start on Thursday in hopes of a finished robot architecture by the end of the week. A lot of thinking to do, but feeling good. More updates to come!
