VCU COMPETITION STATUS

Hey all FIRSTers,

Heres an update from the VCU regional.

WE spend about 6-8 hours setting up the field and (new this year) the practice field. All the pit stations are set up and ready to go! The pits have expanded father across the seigal center with almost wall to wall pit stations.

The VCU Robotics CLub will be providing 4 free pairs of safety glasses to each team over the competition, so be sure to stop by and pick some up!
(Thanks to Ronald William, ltd. and the Kappa Gamma chapter of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity).

So good luck all teams and I’ll see you all tommorrow!!

-Gabe Goldman
VCU Robotics Club Prez

Thanks for giving us an update. It will be really great if teams attending to the VCU regional will keep us updated on the progress of the practice day, qualifying matches, finals, and award winners. In other words, a daily update on the competition will be great.

If people don’t mind, I ask that messages about the VCU competition be kept in this thread only so they are in one place.

Can someone post the practice day schedule, and the competition schedule when available?

http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/Agendas/2004NASAVCUAgenda.pdf

this is what FIRST has, but as I am watching the practice day start time has been pushed back from 10 AM to 11:30…ah turns out it is every regional around the country that is having problems, as the announcer says “it is a practice day for us today too” :slight_smile:

You are able to watch? The links aren’t active on the website I was going on…

yeah I dunno what is going on with the links on that robotics education page…the “feed” im “watching” updates the image about once ever 15-30 seconds…it is terrible o well something is better than nothing at least i can listen to the sweet music selection… :cool:

update maybe it is just me, but seems as though they are just replaying the kickoff on the robotics education page…very wierd…

http://robots.larc.nasa.gov/webcast.html <– that video works fine for me

Make sure you download the newest version of real player. I am gettign 150 kbps feed and over 30 fps. This is a very good feed!!!

just upgrade to the new version of Real Alternative 1.21…now it is working fine for me…

If anyone at VCU is reading this, please tell the field crew that they’re putting the mobile goals on the wrong sides!! An alliance’s color goal should always be on their right… they’ve been putting them on the left!

Like they said, it’s practice day for them, too. =-]

If anyone watching the webcast want to start a AIM chatroom, I am all for joining ^^. My AIM sn is LKen5412.

I saw this. What I would like to see is the schedule of rounds with team numbers, so that I can look for a specific team.

Has any explanation been released about what problem they are having?

I have little else to do, so add me to the list of people who’d be willing to join such a chat room.

I’m not with my team in Portland because, of all things, I have to develop a curriculum that teaches robotics for summer camp.

IF ANYONE @ VCU can read this PLZ TELL THE PPL TO GET OUT OF THE WAY OF THE CAMERA…JEEZ

they mentioned something about the software for operating the field not working correctly, and they will have it working by tommorow…specifics i can’t tell ya…

No one has a good auton. Only one team has knocked off the trigger ball today. ONE. Also, I can see the hanging bar giving FIRST trouble latter in the game season. Also, the ball shute got stuck once, that can be bad if it happened during the finals!!! :slight_smile: Many teams here have bad human players, and an average of 4 balls are in the goals by the end of the game. Only one team has capped the big goal.

Ah, anyway, I’m at VCU, and we have a webcafe now. Sparky will be up soon, so look for us!!!

I was watching the feed earlier, beautiful webcast! Great quality without any lag or distortion.

And don’t worry guys… it’s the first day of the first week, let the teams get their kinks worked out :]

The # of balls in the stationary goal is disappointing, if what you say is true. The alliance starts with 6 balls. FOUR is really not an acceptable number, especially when quite a few can be herded by just shoving :confused:

Are people having issues with auton because their dead reckoning is off or because their positioning system (use of beacons, etc.) is too complicated and has many bugs?

have you tried herding the balls just by pushing them? its not easy

Ive noticed that when the balls are released, most of them end up against the sides or the walls, which will make it difficult to push them towards the corrals

those ball catchers are going to do well

and anyone who can capture the small balls into their machine when they are against the railings or wall ( like us :c)