Hey,
So I wasn’t around in 2002, but I have heard many stories about team 71’s robot that year. I have seen video from Einstein, and I am very curious as to how the “walking” mechanism worked. If someone from 71, or anyone who remembers, could explain it or has pics, that would great.
Thanks,
Seth
I just want to make sure I’m getting this right lol:
It was impossible for the other alliance to win if 71 got their thing out quick enough, am I right?
I wasn’t around in 2002 (FLL maybe) but from this video on the HOT team site [link](http://www2.huronvalley.k12.mi.us/schools/mhs/activity/hot_team/hot_video_gallery_files/2002Video/Newton SF1-1.wmv)
it looks like it was really hard to overcome the Beast’s ability to grab onto all three of the goals in the first seconds of the match. The HOTBOT tried to ram their arm, and that match the Beast only grabbed two goals. BUT, they also grabbed onto our robot and dragged it with them for the rest of the match.
I’m curious as to why 71 didn’t grab any of the goals in the second Einstein final match (from the vids on TBA).
It looks like SPAM knocked them off their path and then 71 couldn’t get turned back around.
It was a combination of SPAM’s (team 180) incredible speed and a well thrown soccer ball at the beginning of the match. The ball ended up under
71’s machine as it fell into it’s operating mode as SPAM made contact. Our alliance (311 308 180) went on to beat them that match to make it a 1-1 tie in the Finals.
I have to mention that one of our alliance partners, team 308 from Walled Lake Michigan. Their robot was able to pick up 2 180lb goals and then move forward into the scoring zones. Looking back I appreciate the ability to do that given the limited motor selections, transmissions and technology available at the time. You have to realize this was pre-AndyMark after all!
Team 311 only lasted 2 more years after that. The Championship Finals at Epcot was one of our highest achievements.
what the heck is this “tether” the MC is talking about? it looks like some sort of ribbon? Does it extend the robot to the “end zone?” what is the significance in that?
sorry, I was only 25 then and in school at the time.
One of the methods to gain points in 2002 was having part of your robot in your “endzone” at the end of the match (segment closest to your alliance station). Any part of the robot counted, so many teams devised tethers they dropped and left there and/or “runners” that would drive back on a tether towards the end of the match in order to get these points while still being in position to control the goals.
Here’s a description of the 2002 game: http://www.team237.com/2002game.html
Here’s a good photo of their robot that year: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/12168
Their feet were made from filecards. They didn’t actually lift the cards, instead they shuffled them back and fourth to move the bot forward. Try it yourself, put a filecard face down on the carpet and try to push it back and fourth. Now imagine a hundred pounds of weight on the card and you can see why nobody could push 71 backwards.
Once 71 had the goals that year could be pushed sideways, but not backwards. You can see it happen in one of the videos I have from 2002, but I don’t remeber which one. http://www.students.ccsu.edu/~rodriguezjel/2002/
What are filecards?
I heard from someone that played against that robot that it tracked the middle goal, but if the goal moved then they would only be able to grapple one goal. the middle one. They also said that they developed an auton that would run out to the middle of the field and ram the middle goal in order to throw them off.
They’re kind of like the metal brushes you use to clean a grill. The name comes from their use - cleaning files.
Filecards are used to clean files, and have many small metal teeth/fingers. Try sticking one into a carpet sometime and pulling. Good luck moving it.
We (190) used them as well, but as anchors. The robot would drive in between two goals, latch on with cables/hooks and drive past into our zone. The anchors would push down into the carpet, raise the drive wheels, and then pull the goals back. It was literally impossible to move the robot. I had always hoped to go head-to-head with 71 to see if they could move us without ripping a hole in the carpet underneath one/both of our robots, but we never met up on the field.
There was no autonomous back then, so no tracking. It was all driver speed and robot quickness.
71 could be beat out to the middle goal, like 180 did, but it was rare.
Here’s the national semi, team 71 v team 60. 60 just beats 71 to the goals, but 71 wins out. It was possibly the most anticipated match of the year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmAnkYDUQM&feature=related
71 could grab and push as mentioned, 60 could grab 2 goals, lift them off the carpet and spin them around the robot so no one could grab them. Quite impressive when you consider those goals weighed about 180lbs each.
Those final matches still haunt me. I was the coach for 308 back in those days. During the first match of the finals on the way to the goals a shaft in our right gearbox shifted by about 1/8" and the first stage of gears got shredded, making us basically useless for the entire finals. It still kills me. Would we have won? Who knows - but I wish I would’ve gotten to see the matchup played out.
The only way to move the goals 190 hung onto was to literally rip the robot in half. Didn’t that happen at Battlecry that year?
We (311/308/180) faced 190 in the first round of the eliminations that year.
At the Midwest regional that year my team, 93, beat them to the center goal by about 1 sec and rammed it into them lifting the top of their robot into the middle of the two platforms lifting all their wheels of the ground causing them to not move the rest of the match. We ended up winning the match, I’ve never heard a crowd cheer louder in all my years since, when that happened.
Indeed the robot did rip in half. From what I have been told, we planted to the ground and were pulled apart when two other teams decided pull on the goals we had latched onto. However, they were able to put the robot back together and go out the next match and win BattleCry. My, how things have changed 
.
Not totally true. There was no autonomous period–that came in 2003–but I have heard that one particular team did run mostly without driver control. There were targets on the goals that sensors could see.
Remember, you don’t have to have an autonomous period to be autonomous. You can run the entire match autonomously.