Hey Everyone,
I’m just wondering if anyone knows what teams used the ball redirect method at Breakaway World Championships in Atlanta. I’m specifically interested in the one that parked in the tunnel in autonomous, unfolded, and didn’t move for the rest of the game. It was tall, and silver.<—Descriptive, huh? 
Thank You!
469
469
Just to beat the dead horse:
469
To elaborate on that robot (in case you want more than their number):
8wd with pneumatic tires - 3-speed servo shifted Dewalt (4 CIM). Front and back pairs pneumatically lifted. You don’t push them, they push you.
Unfolding mechanism - You have seen it already. What you probably didn’t see is that they latch into the tunnel from the bottom, so once they unfold, they are locked in.
Ball control - 3-roller collector (top driven 2xFP, free-spinning bottom and back), full width (sticks out in front of front wheels)
They also have a good kicker. This means that on the rare occasion that you get to the tunnel before they do, and manages to not let 469 push you out, that they can still play a “normal” game, even if they can’t change zones. They are good at it, too. If their partners are incapable, they can play a mid-zone game then get back in the tunnel.
You can’t tip them. They will right themselves if they fall over backwards, even if they are pushed all the way down (to the point that their mechanism touches the ground).
Just in case this was not enough already, here is where some of their matches are. The site is called the blue alliance, and if you search any team number (and name) you can find the team.
http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/team/469
If you click the little video reel or the green download arrow, you can watch matches they are in. I would suggest the Einstein matches.
A team with a classy attitude that had to deal with a lot of nasty attitude and didn’t let it prevent or deter them from playing the game on their terms.
Jane
469 is one of the nicest bunch of people we ever lost to. I spent a good amount of time right next to them during Curie playoffs, saw how they operated, and want to emulate most of what I saw.
They did get a lot of ‘bad press’ and dirty looks for their brilliant method. Oh, it could be defeated (witness our first Curie match against them), but they competed and played fair and square.
Can you please explain this Jane? I do not quite understand.
I personally shook their hands and told them what a great implementation of a great idea it was. I did not hear about anyone giving them attitude, and if they did why? Because they came up with a great idea and implemented it well?
If you don’t want to say it on the thread, please feel free to pm me.
469 was battered with accusations of cheating and breaking the rules throughout the season all over. There was even a “joke” rule at MSC saying that a team couldn’t park in the tunnel for more than the pinning time as it was impeding the movement of robots and would be penalized. While meant as a joke, it was in bad taste. There team also had to deal with the crowd consistently cheering for the opposing alliance and going wild when they flipped. Overall not an exemplary example of GP from the community.
Glad to hear it. I’ll see if I can find a thread or two here in CD.
Jane
I give them major props for being able to implement the perfect ball redirector. I know when I saw their robot in a video on Youtube redirecting I was amazed.
We were in an alliance with them where this had to be implemented for a different reason; There was a velcro strap that held the redirector arms in place in the pit for safety reasons, unfortunately, it was not removed before the robot was put on the field :ahh:
Despite that, they still scored and fed us ammunition wonderfully!
469 Amazing Team, Amazing Robot. That’s all I can say. I wish we had thought of something like that. There team was amazing, lending us parts and or tools when we needed them, being as much fun to play against as to play with.
It is a rare robot that changes the game so greatly that one has to completly rethink how to play it.
469 was that robot. Enough said.
I chuckled at their robot, not because it was stupid or something, because it was so genius. I chuckled at the simplicity but yet other teams have not done it. I chuckled at my own inability to think of that. I would assume about 70% of the teams were thinking offense, so I guess like what Robert Frost has wrote:
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The better robots tend to be the most unique.
Palardy, were you at IRI and watching matches? I distinctly saw 469 voluntarily cross the bumps at least once on the webcast. They’re not the best at it, but if they think it’s a good plan, they can. They did risk tipping every time they went over them, but it was a calculated risk.
I was at IRI. They can definatly go over the bump. However, they only went over in the most extreme case. A couple times max over the course of the season. Besides that, if a match ever gets to the point where 469 has to cross a bump I would say that match is basically over for them.
I think thats why aplard said they can’t. They can, but they shouldn’t ever have too.
I saw them do it on their practice field, and they tipped over sideways (and couldn’t get up because of the bump) as many times as they went over. Maybe with more practice they could do it better. It also took them a very long time. I assumed they would never do it because of the risk of tipping.
They are very nice people, and they let us use their practice field all the time (They’re like 3 minutes from our shop).
Team 469 had, of all the robots I saw, the coolest robot for Breakaway. It was a really simple design, but it worked very well. It definitely did change the way my team thought about playing the game.