Post any reactions to your week 0 events here. I’d love to see discussion about the game, how it’s played, how your robot does, etc.
I’ll be attending the Centurion-Krawler event on Saturday, and the Chanhassen week 0 event on Sunday. Couldn’t have a better birthday present than to watch robots all day!
In Suffield, CT Aces High is hosting Suffield Shakedown today. To watch the webcast go to http://www.shsrobotics.org/ and click on the “Watch Now” link. Good luck to everyone hosting events today and teams that are attending the events.
Looks like it was lots of fun. Looks like destroying the defenses was literal, lots of wood chunks flying around.
Lots of interesting drive trains, it was nice to see the Falcons “10 wheel drive” in action.
Lots and lots of low bar robots today, only saw a few that had to go other directions.
Really liked how you let teams play for 5 minutes a time. It took drivers about that long to figure things out.
Good event, this looks like it will be a good game to watch from the stands.
Aiming is hard.
We did that last year as well as this year at Suffield Shakedown. It allows drivers to figure things out and get more driving practice before their district or regional competitions. Teams have seemed to liked this format better than shorter 2 and a half minute matches.
What I saw at the Arizona duel in the desert as well. It seems my assumption that any shooting when not on the batter will require a solid vision tracking system. The margin of error is just too low for a driver to consistently aim manually. Maybe I’ll be wrong come championships but so far it seems to be the case.
I was most surprised to see that not one team at the Merrimack event managed to damage a Category C defense on their own. They either needed 2 robots, or spent the whole match trying to get across once. Did anyone at the other week 0 events manage to solo a Category C defense?
Was aiming hard due to just the inherent difficulty of shooting from farther away/lack of alignment or was it due to defensive driving?
We weren’t personally practicing aiming but from what I saw of every other team, it was quite a challenge to line up accurately. For one it is really hard to see with the defenses in the way and the margin of error is just very small. Even from the archived webcasts I’m watching from the other week 0 events, aiming is a challenge. This difficulty will be magnified when robots start playing defense.
It’s also hard for a lot of teams to turn because of their drive train. Making a high traction drive train to get over defenses is nice, but it also makes it harder to turn efficiently making it harder to aim.
We made a minor modification to our robot which helped shooting accuracy. Our spotlight for aiming seems to work OK.
Over here at team 3102’s Week Zero the competition itself was exceptional, and we got the process going smoothely to make it great for everyone.
The Problems:
We were using FMS Offseason
Only about half of the OM5P routers there would configure properly, even with firmware flashes. We could take one router, configure it fine, take another, wouldn’t work. Even three computers wouldn’t do it when it did others fine, then randomly after trying all day it would work. Unreliable at best. We had to borrow out a few older D-links B’s to teams, and those configured perfectly every time.
Teams CAN NOT connect to a central router to practice with their robots. Teams were controlling other teams and seeing other cameras, and we made sure to re-configure their routers to their proper team numbers. I was told that the DNS method implimented in FRC’s software does that natively. With FMS software enabled we could get two robots working correctly but didn’t have time to do more testing. This ruined our entire FMS setup because there was no time to take everyones radio’s and re-configure them, especially not with the configuration problems.
The solutions:
Teams were told to reconfigure their own routers with the config software, so we had about 11 seperate AP’s going. Much interference with our stream was had, however teams could operate properly.
We simply had teams use the ‘practice’ method and set their timing to:
0
15
0
115
20
I had to do a good 30 laps around the field overall, showing teams before every round the timing and to press enable practice when we do a ready check and count down.
Next Year:
Next year if the same issues persist we will simply inform teams to configure their own radios, then right before lunch we’l gather them up and configure them while lunch goes on. Then we should be able to control them via FMS for official rounds.
We will also be running a dedicated line to have a consistent live stream, another camera may be added.
Thank you to those that came
We greatly appreciated the crowd we drew. Solving problems and getting everyone operational was a tedious, but very rewarding task. Its really great seeing all of you compete on the field and testing out your equipment. Sorry about the music, nobody thought to hire a DJ 
This is our first year with our official Andymark field, next year we’l try to make it all just right.
Oh god, under defense, high goal from the middle of the field will be a nightmare. Even if I write vision code, by the time we’re aligned, a defender will have pushed us half way across the field.
I have to ask, how did you guys come up with such a complicated shooter?
Good question, I’m not entirely sure. Though I do know a few factors that led up to the design. For example, the linear shooter (one cim, two sets of wheels on one side to get some ball spin) seemed the most promising design during prototyping, we wanted the harvester and shooter to be separate mechanisms and face opposite sides, and we wanted the release point of the ball not to be too low. So from there we came up with a linear shooter assembly on an arm.
Absolutely this.
Exactly! I think a large number of teams are underestimating the importance of having a robot on your alliance playing defense. In my opinion teams are to optimistic about scoring boulders and aren’t taking into account how difficult it will be to a) get to the low goal with a defender in the way, b) shoot from any unprotected position before a courtyard defender can ram you or get in front of you and block your shot.
Here in Indiana, Team 1741 hosted a fantastic event for roughly a dozen teams! All teams did well in what they tried. Best part was all the interesting designs. No two teams had really similar robots.
Thank you 1741 for such a great day!
High goals are really, really hard.
From what I saw at the Suffield Shakedown:
Crossing a defense in Autonomous is a must do for the 10 points.
Spybot scoring could be worth the same, but if you can do that, why not work on crossing a defense too for 20 points total.
The high goal may only be worth it in autonomous, after that, the 3 point gamble of missing a shot against a defense (with a better view of the action) and extending your cycle times cuts into your ability to capture the tower and get the Ranking points or 25 in the Playoffs.
A sweeper Robot could help to weaken a tower quickly.
Breaching 4/5 defenses is a good idea for the Ranking points or 20 in the Playoffs.
An actual match seemed pretty quick, given the number of tasks that are possible time vampires. I think you’ll be lucky to get in 4 cycles and capture, let alone scale.
Scoring in the low goal seemed trickier than expected with the sloped batter. A good strategy may be to shoot it up the batter with enough speed and proper aim. Positioning and aiming is difficult across the field, that’s where a camera on the Robot can help.
Like the balls in Rebound Rumble, boulder characteristics will change. Many get crushed under Robots on the floor and some defenses.
The Drawbridge may be a very popular choice this year as it blocks the drive teams’ vision, but that cuts both ways. Nobody manipulated the drawbridge or sally port from the neutral zone today, but that may change. The ramparts and cheval de frise take time and are difficult.
Some Robots died on the Outer Works. Make sure your connections are tight and sturdy.
Robots that get stuck on a defense can be freed by an alliance partner.
I am sure this will change, but I think that an effective alliance will have one Robot dedicated to breaching, and two Robots dedicated to weakening the tower.
The breaching Robot could hold open the drawbridge or sally port, while the scoring robots cross them from the neutral zone to score.
You’ve got to outscore the opposing alliance to get your precious Ranking Points.
In the Playoffs, teams may gamble on a defensive Robot, at the expense of possibly not capturing a tower. But if you’ve weakened the tower by 3 or four in autonomous, that may not be an issue. Then again, if by the CMP the towers start at 12… Oh dear, I’m headed down the rabbit hole.
Can’t wait to see how Stronghold is played by week 5.
We had a small practice event with out 10 teams from SW Michigan today. Only one pair of bots tried the drawbridge, with one putting it down from the other side and then backing through with the other bot following.
Our bot had no problem hitting the high goal, but only from one spot. Our cameras get in on Monday so that should help. I don’t think we will have a problem with the high goal.
Had 2 of the bots leave scattered parts all over the field as wheels and gears shattered coming down off the moat or rough terrain.
We had a issue with starting to turn before our robot “landed” from launching itself over an obstacle. If we hit and begun our turn before the from landed we’d end up sliding sideways.
Our top match was 72 points, and that is with one of the robots missing a major component and without cameras. I’m thinking week 1 will be higher than anyone expects and not like previous years.