Here is a quick update from the St. Louis Regional:
(I am currently at the team party, at the St. Louis Science center)
Robots at St. Louis are running pretty well. There are alot of first and second year teams, but many look like seasoned vets.
One of the best highlights I saw was when two Indianapolis rookies got together in an alliance… team 1018 was on the HDPE, and they deployed a ramp behind them. Team 1024 rode up on their ramp and both were awarded 25 points. This round is surely a strong candidate for “play of the day”… and it was by 2 rookies!
Baxter Bomb Squad looks strong as usual. They are very quick.
Team 547 is consistently knocking over the entire stack in auto mode… very efficent and effective.
There are many robots with huge honkin’ wheels here… very nice.
Team 868 is stacking pretty well… but they have a low seed.
There are not too many stackers out there. The ones who are doing it seem to be getting better, but a few are giving up on the stacker mentality and simply pushing totes.
I am mostly amazed by the quality of the teams with only 1-2 years of experience. They not only have robots that work well, but they also have canopy pits, overhead projectors, and they are sharing their scouting data. This is our first trip to St. Louis, and these teams over here have a good idea what GP means.
As for team 45, we are doing well. Things are getting tweaked and we are having some fun. Hopefully, things will go well tomorrow too.
Thanks for the update! Do you like the St. Louis Science Center? I was there about 3 months ago, and it was pretty enjoyable. I bet I know which section you’re in, too…
My own team (1067) didn’t do that well, but I was rather proud when our robot, the programming recently modified by me to combat 547’s entire stack push-over, but untested, reached a standoff at the top of the ramp that was literally a battle for the wall.
*Originally posted by Clanat *
**How about some details? **
They were too bulky to do much damage. Their suction cups worked only moderately well. As long as someone pushed on one of their wings, the opposing robot had enough leverage to move them around. Their autonomous mode was pretty good, it worked most of the time, and they were quick to the top.
We seeded fifth, and won the Motorola Quality award.
I just got back from St. Louis about 30 minutes ago, overall I’m pretty pleased with what we figured out about our robot. Our arms work, woohoo!! after adding an extensive amount of latex tubing the arms go up and down with ease. This allows us to keep them up or down to let people on the ramp or to the other side. Our suction cups never got used. After dealing with other problems or just trying different things we never sucessfully attached to the HDPE. Our autonomous mode and our robot are being really screwy. After dieing in numerous matches we’ve come to the conclusion that we need to do something about our wiring and programming mode so we can be up and running at 100% for both Pittsburgh and Chicago in the upcoming weeks. All in all i’m pleased, we did come away with the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award, which we have never won before. I’de also like to thank the guys from 111 for the many suggestions on fixing our robot over the weekend, 547 and 171 for loaning us the many small things we forgot, and team 447 for picking us for the elimation matches (the CIA (Central Indiana Alliance - 447, 45, 1018) had a really good chance, but things just didnt go well).
Next week, Pittsburgh, the week after that a break, and then Chicago. More updates to come!
I just want to congratulate the Kats on a great regional performance. We had a blast strategizing with you guys in our qualifying match, and you had our teeth chattering before our quarterfinals match.
-Joel
Team 356 ~ Enigma ?
Semi-Finalist, St Louis Regional 2003 (Thanks 525 and 16!)
we (1028 – the übergeeks) did quite well for a rookie (outside of our drive train busting a couple of times), but some of our alliances had some major problems. that’s ok though…most of them got them fixed and went on to perform quite well. in one match they disabled us for no reason, claiming our light didn’t work (even though i could clearly see it). oh well
the one team i really wish i could’ve seen perform was 1020. i don’t think anyone could’ve moved them had they gotten on the ramp. if you went by their pit and looked on the underside of their wings, you’d know what i mean.
*Originally posted by Clark Gilbert *
**after adding an extensive amount of latex tubing the arms go up and down with ease. **
i noticed that…how much did you guys add!? :yikes: looked like more than 5 feet! (i actually couldn’t tell, but man that was a lot for one spot)
*Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc * i noticed that…how much did you guys add!? :yikes: looked like more than 5 feet! (i actually couldn’t tell, but man that was a lot for one spot)
Little more
Anyway to clarify Clark’s post:
We had problems all day today. We would make it up the ramp anda then we would get a solid low battery light and a Basic Error on the OI. Around the time this happened, our pump came on right above the HDPE like normal. After much discussion on the way back from St Louis, we believe that the pump somehow contributed and the static electricity from the HDPE, which zapped our robot controller and pin 4 (The reset pin on the programming port) was zapped and reset the robot. Wildstang had a similar problem and many of their teammembers were there scouting this weekend and took the time to come and lend us a hand (thanks guys!) We sat there dead, sometimes we regained control, other times we didnt. This problem was most likely the cause of all of our other problems from the weekend, with exceptions from earlier on Friday. We have a list of ideas on how to fix it that will be ready to try next Thursday in Pittsburg.
Now that I think about it, the times when we didnt have problems, we didnt make it to the top of the ramp. I’ll have to check the log book on Monday to verify…
I thought that you performed well. Like any good team, you took a problem, and continually worked to make it better. Many times did I run to your pit to find you all elbow-deep in tubing or random robot pieces.
Congratulations on making it to eliminations, and I know you’ll be back up and running for the next regional. I’ll be looking forward to your performance in Evanston!
Now that you mention it, we were getting odd low batt lights in St. Louis. I did not notice whether or not there was any correlation between seeing the low batt light and being on the HDPE. But other than that we had no problems with static on the HDPE.
I’m a driver on Team 547 and I would like to commend all the teams at the St. Louis Regionals this year. Everyone was so awesome to us! I feel that every team gets better with age, and I know that we’ve come a long way in our first three years. Although we were paired up with rookie teams in all the qualifying matches but one, I don’t feel that it was very much to our disadvantage, we got to help many rookie teams out, and that’s what matters. We’ve also learned a lot from you guys about scouting, strategizing, and counter-strategizing, which also comes with age. Good job on your planning, building, scouting, and all the things that got you there like fundraising and mentorships. Good luck at nationals “ya’ll”!
One of the best highlights I saw was when two Indianapolis rookies got together in an alliance… team 1018 was on the HDPE, and they deployed a ramp behind them. Team 1024 rode up on their ramp and both were awarded 25 points. This round is surely a strong candidate for “play of the day”… and it was by 2 rookies!
Ok, after looking on the 447 website I found a picture of this.
*Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc *
**
i noticed that…how much did you guys add!? :yikes: looked like more than 5 feet! (i actually couldn’t tell, but man that was a lot for one spot) **
We actually used around 20-30 ft. of latex tubing, however this is perfectly legal. What is illegal is using more than 5ft of latex tubing to throw a tote, we were simply using it as an energy storage device to assist us in raising and lowering our wings, which is legal. :]
We’d go over the ramp, then get to other side and get a low batt. light. It was really weird. We could still use on motor tho so we usually tried to use that to reach the top of the ramp.
To begin with I would like to say how happy I am that I was able to participate in the St. Louis regionals with so many fine teams. I really liked how involved many of the rookey teams were and how well some of them performed (way to go 1098)!! I’m even more happy that my team (525) was able to compete in the finals. Thank you all for a great time and the fun that we had. (especially teams 16 and 356).
However, I would like to bring up one downside that may have effected my teams performance in the quarterfinals. I do not want this to be miss-interpretated as poor sportsmanship or as a sore losser. But as most of the teams that were there know our autonomous mode was working great until someone figured out how to disrupt it. (whoever did this I congradulate, for we hadn’t thought of this problem ourselves). By placing their boxes in front of us and mostly outside the scoring zone, the other alliances were able to deviate our intended path. Since I was the alliance captain I discussed this issue with the judges on it’s legality. They had decided that this was fine as long as the tub was touching the scoring zone. However, if you look at the following link you will find that FIRST had ruled otherwise in a previous question:
I do not want anyone to think that I believe that we should be given another chance nor that I’m saying that the other teams won unfairly. But that I would like to make sure that this was reconized and inforced at Nationals.
Congradulations to all of the winning teams, you deserve what you recieved for your hard work. Thanks again for a great time. Good luck all at nationals!!
