What exactly is going on there? What was hybrid mode? It appears that they’re using a Kinect to track their movements (?) but was this a part of FRC’s official game for 2012?
No. Since you can’t use controllers to control the robot during autonomous, the driver was tracked via Kinect and various body movements translated to various machine functions (e.g. hand push would be shoot, jedi force touch would be move, etc.)
This is now illegal due to Cheezy Vision, in which a similar technique was used to tell the robot which goal was hot. It “isn’t in the spirit of autonomous mode”
I am pretty sure that the Cheesy Poofs are in their own time zone - known as the “Chuck Norris Zone”
-dave
.
Other stories from an alternative FRC history:
- A single 1992 corn kernel is mailed to every FIRST supporter who donates more than $50
- The first robot to demonstrate bumpers before they were made mandatory also originally sported “shoulder pads” and “shin guards,” but these had to be removed to make weight
- A 2007 “rack” was repurposed as a swingset in a central Manchester playground
(Yes, Kinect was a legitimate part of the game, but most teams didn’t use it. 254 was poking fun at an element of the 2012 game design that seemed to be an afterthought. See 2012 game manual for more information.)
In order:
Awesomeness.
Cheezy Vision before it was Cheezy Vision.
It does appear that way. But, was it really for really real?
Yes…ish. It did not get utilized much in 2012 as most teams shot from a stationary spot. In fact, that was an odd year where several teams scored in autonomous only as they had difficulty lining up their shot after Hybrid mode.
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/2012-competition-manual-and-related-documents
Was it a 3 tier swing set?
That’s pretty neat. Thanks for those little tidbits of information, guys. 
Someone on their team would have to correct me but in 2012 the autonomous period was a “hybrid” period in which the human player could control the robot via a Microsoft Kinect. Few teams actually utilized it. 254 would just send someone out to mess around and have a little bit of fun every match, this is in no way controlling the robot (To my understanding).
I was the human player for my team in 2012, tried driving with the kinect once, thought it was cool but hated every second of it. Had almost no control whatsoever. Could have been our programmers that year, could have been me, we just ditched it after a practice match or two.
I always found it hilarious that 254 mocked hybrid mode in 2012, only to define their own hybrid mode for their 2014 championship winning season*
(*that they only used because FMS didn’t bother to work)